Story of an Undead Otaku
by Eviclair
Summary: ...or how your average otaku manages to trip, die, and come back as Tsuna's twin sister. Add in a certain snarky Kurokawa and a baby hitman with the mother-of-all happy-trigger-fingers and you've got a recipe for disaster. ..::OC/?::..
1. Life, Death, and Rebirth

It was never supposed to turn out like this.

Well, perhaps that wasn't completely true. I had read enough fanfiction in my lifetime to know that these kinds of things didn't typically end in sugar and rainbows. But still…this was Katekyo Hitman Reborn. So maybe things weren't always happy. So maybe people bled and sweat and cried and _died_ all the time. But they always did it together, as a family. A highly dysfunctional family that was in desperate need of a psych evaluation, sure, but they worked. I'd like to think that I'd been a part of that, for however brief of a time.

So how did things end up like this?

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Hell, sometimes I wonder if I know, myself.

So let's rewind.

* * *

June 28, 2012.

My sixteenth birthday.

Any other teenager would have been incredibly excited. I mean, seriously. Sixteen. That usually means cars and computers and other expensive things that your parents thought you were too young to have. I guess a part of me was pretty pumped, but for the most part it just felt like a normal day. There was no sudden shift in atmosphere, no feeling of accomplishment or maturity or satisfaction. It was actually vaguely disappointing.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint), everyone else in the world very strongly disagreed.

The day started out with my favorite breakfast, courtesy of my mom. While I stuffed my face full of Monkey Bread (which was pretty much just a giant doughy cinnamon roll cake made up of lots of tiny cinnamon rolls glued together with enough sugar to make anyone a diabetic) she went over our plans for the day. Since I had a history of not caring about my birthday, the list was fairly short. We would go out to our local anime store and buy a plushie or two as my present and then do some light window-shopping to see if anything else caught my eye. Later that night, my two best friends and I would go with my dad and me for fondue. It wasn't much compared to the typical giant Sweet Sixteen parties, but that was the way I liked it.

With our plan laid out and my plate spotless, my mom and I went our separate ways to get ready. She, my stepdad, and I lived in a fairly average two-story home. My two older sisters (neither of which I was particularly close to or even civil with) had moved out to go to college years ago, leaving the entire upstairs to me alone. I've always been something of a hermit, so I was content. Mom always used to tell me it was because I was afraid of people not liking me. I would try to hide away from every one so the risk was eliminated.

A very large part of me wanted to say I wasn't quite that much of a wuss, but now I kind of wonder if she wasn't on to something after all.

After taking a long and relaxing shower to prep me for shopping (even when it wasn't for her, my mom was an almost terrifyingly aggressive shopper), I took a few minutes just to stare at myself. I really wasn't anything special. Sure, I wasn't hideous, but I wasn't pretty by any stretch of imagination. My eyesight was atrocious, thus my thick glasses, and my hair was a long frizzy mess of black curls that I had to constantly keep tied back for fear of being like this girl I knew who had a legitimate afro. My face wasn't the clearest and my eyes were perpetually half closed. I tried to make myself feel better by telling people it was my mom's Korean in me, but anyone close to me knew that I was just perpetually tired and bored.

My figure wasn't anything to envy, either. I had very long legs, but my thighs were big enough to smother a baby. I wasn't _fat_, persay, just chubby in inconvenient places. Everything that was supposed to go to my boobs and hips always went to my thighs and it was frustrating beyond belief.

All in all, I was average at best. I was smart for my age, but I wasn't a genius like some of my classmates. I loved anime, but I didn't have the money to totally obsess over it and buy cool merchandise like my best friend did. I was tough when the situation demanded it or my friends needed me to be, but on my own I was a total doormat and a nervous wreck. Really, the only thing I had going for me was my ability to bitch at anything that moved, but that was hardly helpful when half the time I was too scared of talking to strangers to open my mouth. And when your circle of friends was as small as mine, nearly everyone was stranger.

I looked away from the mirror before I could pick my flaws apart any further and got dressed. So I was a little self-conscious, big deal. What teenage girl wasn't? Ready for the day, I turned and exited my bathroom, heading for the staircase.

Predictably, that's when everything went to hell.

My cat Tinkerbell and I had something of a love/hate relationship. I would feed her, clean her litterbox, and play with her for at least half an hour every day. In return, she frequently tried to kill me by hiding in the shadows, startling me by running straight into my path, and making me trip on things. The first time she had done it and actually _injured _me was right before the first day of eighth grade, just after we'd gotten her. My foot slipped on the tile and I fell back onto my wrist, spraining it. The second time was just after Christmas the next year. I tripped over her and twisted my ankle. The third time?

The third time was on June 28, 2012. It was my sixteenth birthday, and it set off a chain of events the both completely destroyed my life and gave me a new one at the same time.

Just as I was about to go down the first step on my staircase, Tinkerbell rushed out of the guest bedroom and straight into the trajectory of my foot. In an effort to avoid punting her down a staircase, I quickly withdrew and lost my balance in the process. The only thing I had time to think was 'Oh holy fucking shit' (what? I was a teenager, not a saint) before I went tumbling face first down an entire flight of stairs. Somewhere between the blinding pain of my face connecting with the steps and my legs cracking sharply against the wooden guard rail, I blacked out.

That was the last I ever saw of home.

* * *

The next thing I knew was darkness.

Well, maybe darkness wasn't the best word. It was more…red, I supposed, but almost grey. Like when you close your eyes after staring at a computer screen in a dimly lit room for too long. Whatever it was, it was warm and very squishy. There was a deep bass beat that rumbled the walls of the small space, and it was getting faster all the time. I faintly wondered if the neighbors were having another party.

I felt…calm. It was a nice feeling. I hadn't felt completely zen like this is a very long time. I was usually too busy stressing out about friends or school or my incurable case of 'should-not-have-said-that'. There was a part of me in the back of my mind that was having a full blown panic attack and screaming at me to get up and figure out what the hell was going on because whatever it was wasn't normal _at all_- but the warm feeling of alrightness washed over me again and the frantic thoughts slid away like water on a window. I was vaguely aware of something nudging me in the side and, somewhat irritated by its intrusion, I nudged it right back.

That's when the walls of the squishy room completely collapsed. There was no more warmth. No more soft nudging. All that was left was piercing cold and the walls were closing in tighter and tighter and oh god I was moving where was the warmth something was pulling at me and it hurt holy shit _why was it so cold_-

I screamed bloody murder.

After a few minutes of just solid wailing, it became apparent that I was no longer cold, nor in pain, nor wet. My cries faded away to soft sniffles and something- no, someone tightened their absolutely massive arm around my midsection. My midsection that was covered in nothing but a thin piece of cloth. My heart jumped into my throat and my eyes snapped open, fully prepared to scream rape and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

I don't think could've if I had tried.

Instead of the unkempt, pierced face of a thug or rapist I had been expecting, I was met with the smiling, tired face of a very pretty young woman surrounded by bright little sunspots. What threw me off was how absolutely _gigantic _she was- and I by gigantic I didn't mean fat. She was a literal, towering, David-and-Goliath _giant_. Her face was easily twice the size of my own. I whimpered and shrunk back, struggling slightly. For some reason, I just couldn't move my body as much as I wanted to. It was almost I was trying to move limbs that weren't there, but I could clearly feel the shifting of fabric over them- wait. Had I been swaddled?

The woman gasped softly and said…something. It sounded like Japanese, but I couldn't tell for sure. I wasn't exactly the poster child for bilingualism- I often had issues speaking English correctly, let alone a second language. A large meaty hand brushed against my skull (my _bare skull what the hell_) and my breath caught in my throat out of surprise. My eyes went so wide it almost hurt and they flicked away from the smiling woman's face to scan the room. The sunspots were fading and it became easier to make out my surroundings, white as they may be.

It looked like a hospital.

There was a sinking feeling in my gut. My overactive imagination and I had read enough shady fanfiction to have an inkling of where this was going.

A soft gurgle across from me shocked me out of my rapidly rising panic. My eyes flickered to the woman's other arm. Cradled in it was a burrito of cloth with a teary-eyed baby tucked inside.

Now, please understand. I hated kids. They were snotty and needy and clingy and never seemed to leave me alone. I had never understood why people constantly fawned over them and cooed at their chubby, slobbery cheeks.

Looking at the burrito baby sniffling across from me, however, I could admit to seeing some of the appeal. It was small and wrinkly and frankly not that attractive, but it had the widest, most adorable honey brown eyes I had seen in my life. It was surreal enough to momentarily distract me from my terror.

And then the woman started cooing again and I went right back into panic mode. I was acutely aware of just how small I was and it _wasn't okay_. The only normal-sized things in this room seemed to be me and the little bundle of screaming human across from me, so-

I froze.

I looked back at the burrito baby.

_We were the same size_.

I was the same size as a _baby_.

…I was fucking _bald_.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi…Sawada Tsunami…Watashi no futago ha totemo kawaii desu!"

I may not know Japanese, but any fangirl worth her salt could've figured out that someone had just been called cute. That wasn't what scared me so bad I passed out. It was what she had said right before.

Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Sawada _Tsunayoshi._

_Sawada motherfu-_ Actually, screw that.

_Sawada Tsunami_.

I didn't know that name.

Did that mean that Sawada Tsunami was…me?

That was about the time I passed out.

* * *

**A/N: **

******_"Sawada Tsunayoshi...Sawada Tsunami...Watashi no futago ha totemo kawaii desu!"- _"Sawada Tsunayoshi...Sawada Tsunami... My twins are so cute!**

**Guys, I seriously don't know Japanese. This all came from an online translator, so please correct me if its wrong o3o**

**Please Review!**

**(KHRAkira Amano)  
(TsunamiMe)**


	2. Acceptance and Lack Thereof

A word of advice to all of those crazed otaku out there chomping at the bit for a chance to be reborn into an anime:

Don't do it.

It's total bullshit.

I mean, I guess if you were cool enough to get, oh I don't know, a _goddamn guide_ or even a freaking manual it might not be so bad.

Did anyone think to get me one of those? No. I was going into all of this completely blind, and I hated it.

When I woke up for the third time, I was immediately assaulted with a multitude of random gibberish cooing noises and large, beaming faces not even inches from my own. I tried to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming, but I quickly aborted that plan when I realized that instead of hard and pearly teeth I only had... gums.

'You have got to be kidding me', I wailed mentally. To my shock, my eyes actually began to well with tears and I blinked them away furiously, annoyed with myself. Was I crying more easily because I was a baby? I hardly ever teared up usually. I took a moment to recompose myself and looked around curiously, trying hard to not acknowledge the giants hovering over me. I wasn't quite ready to tackle _that_ development yet.

On my left, all I could see were bars. Since I was currently a baby (oh god what the hell- _no no no, don't think about it_) I thought it safe to assume that I was in a crib. My eyes flickered to my right only to immediately clench shut.

Okay.

Come on, you can do this.

Just breath through it.

I cracked my eye open and sneaked another hesitant peek, repressing shivers of...well, something. Snuggled into and _drooling _onto my right arm was a little bundle of blue. If memory served me correctly, this was Sawada Tsunayoshi.

_'Your new brother,'_ my mind supplied. I clamped down on the thought and banished it to thought-hell. I wasn't ready to think about that yet. Not at all.

Sawada Tsunay- no, Tsuna- _no, bad thoughts_- the _burrito baby's_ toothless mouth was wide open and a thick stream of globby baby-saliva was dribbling onto the portion of the blanket covering my sleeve. If I shifted a little, I could feel that the wetness had seeped in to my skin. I shuddered deeply.

On one hand, the baby version of the main character of my favorite anime was sleeping practically on top of me and marking me with his spit.

On the other hand, the baby version of the main character of my favorite anime was sleeping practically on top of me and _marking me with his spit_.

I didn't know if my heart was doing the samba because of fangirlish glee or complete and total revulsion. I settled on a mixture of both.

The cooing people above decided that they didn't like being ignored and began touching me, brushing away the few tears that had escaped my eyes and readjusting the nauseatingly pink blanket I was swaddled in. I fought the urge to shrink away from the pair of meaty man-hands that reached into the crib and instead let them tap my nose and tighten my blanket. Peering around the massive hairy intrusion, I got a glimpse of honeyed eyes and a roguish smile before the face abruptly retracted out of my line of sight, muttering excitedly in Japanese.

This language barrier was starting to get annoying.

The other person leaning over the crib continued smiling softly, laughing and nodding in response to whatever it was that the man had said. His face reappeared in my view, wide eyed and slack jawed but kind-of-sort-of-almost-not-quite smiling.

Just what was he gaping at?

My hands automatically went up to try and probe my face, but they were effectively pinned to my side by both the offensively bright blanket and the little drooling burrito on my right. My eyebrow twitched downwards and the woman _squealed_, pushing frantically at her husband at pointing at some object that I couldn't see. He disappeared for a moment and came back with a camera in hand.

Inwardly, I groaned. I _hated _pictures. And since I was so small and pretty much paralyzed, I couldn't even duck or cover my face.

Instead of frowning at the camera like the people obviously wanted me to, I closed my eyes and pretend to sleep. The excited noises quickly fell into whispers.

Without the smiling faces above my head to distract me, I was left alone with my own thoughts.

I didn't like that.

First came the questions. Was I dead? Was this heaven? If it was, then God had a seriously sick sense of humor. You weren't supposed to feel pain in heaven, right? Well, being 'born' freaking _hurt_. Heaven sucked.

Why was I here? Not just the obvious in-Namimori here, but also the 'snuggled up next to Sawada Tsu-'

'Next to Sawada Tsunay-'

… 'Next to this little burrito baby'.

It occurred to me that maybe, just maybe the people making the ridiculous baby noises above me were Iemitsu and Nana.

Well shit.

I sighed through my little button nose. Trying to ignore the warm and squishy patch of drooled-on blanket over my arm, I settled down and tried to get some actual sleep. If I was lucky, I would wake up tomorrow in my nice warm bed with my mom yelling at me to get up and my cat trying to sit on my face.

I didn't feel very lucky.

* * *

Needless to say, I woke up in the exact same place I fell asleep in. The only difference? My entire right side was covered in slobber.

I'm going to do us all a favor and skip over my next few months as a baby. There is a reason why children don't remember breastfeeding or using diapers or- lord have mercy- _teething_. It's traumatic, it's degrading, and frankly it's boring. Most of my time was spent alternating my blank stare between the ceiling and my new twin brother.

I was still having some issues wrapping my mind around that last one. I had finally reached the point where I could think his name and not have a complete and total mental breakdown, though. Yay, progress.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about my parents. My original ones, I mean. What had happened to me? Had I died? Were they sad, scared, upset? It sent pangs of crushing guilt through me every time I thought about it, which ultimately ended up in me crying. Had I not been a baby and therefore expected to constantly cry anyways, it would have been thoroughly humiliating. I prided myself on going almost my entire life without crying in public. Other than these spontaneous guilt trips, though, I was a very quiet baby.

Well, compared to Tsuna, anyways. Then again, a freaking air strike would have been quieter than Tsuna.

I could now confirm that _yes_, Sawada Tsunayoshi had been a pansy from the very day he was born. He was the kid that would scream for twenty minutes out of every hour, day or night. He was occasionally petrified by his own shadow and seemed to think his father was going to eat him and reacted by screaming and crying more. For our first few weeks together, I put up with it with a smile because seriously. Baby Tsuna. Just...Baby Tsuna. Enough was _enough _though. He was the epitome of everything I hated about children, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't genuinely hate the kid.

Dislike? Oh _hell _yes. Nevertheless, there was just something about his giant eyes and the way he just oozed cuteness and how he always shared his blocks with me when I started crying that pulled me in, even against my will.

Another thing I thought about almost constantly was the future. I was here for a reason. Well, probably anyways.

I knew that the plot could survive without me. Hell, not just survive, _flourish_. So what was I supposed to accomplish? It wasn't as if I could go out and really _do _anything. I was still just a baby. I couldn't, for example, save Mukuro, partly because I had no idea where he was and partly because he _needed_ to be with the Estraneo to get that eye. Was it bad of me to think that? It felt bad.

However, I hadn't just been dumped _anywhere_. I'm sure if fate had wanted me to fix Mukuro's life, it would have dumped me with him. No, I was _Tsuna's_ twin sister. But…what did Tsuna need _my_ help with? He did fine on his own in canon.

Across from me on our mutual quilt full of blocks and rattles, Tsuna's lego tower tipped over and exploded into pieces. He stared at it uncomprehendingly for a few seconds. Then, without preamble, he put his hands to his eyes and cried loud enough to make my eardrums start ringing. Annoyed with the interruption, I coaxed my meaty infant legs into motion and crawled to his toys, gathering them into a neat little pile. I shoved them back in his face before returning to the opposite side of the quilt with a pout. I was technically almost 17 by now. I should not have had to deal with this crap.

Tsuna paused in his sobbing to stare at the legos incredulously. I held my breath, hoping against all hope that he would be satisfied by the new pile and wouldn't restart his banshee wailing.

When Tsuna did nothing but shoot me a toothless, watery grin and resume playing with his toys, I felt like something clicked in my mind.

Sawada Tsunayoshi had a suspicious lack of parental figures in his life. His father- _our _father now, I guess- had packed up and left not even two weeks after we had been born. He may only be wary of him now, but I knew that later Tsuna would absolutely abhor him. Nana…well, she tried her best, really. But even in canon when she only had _one_ child to raise, she wasn't exactly the image of 'parental support'. She mocked her child nearly as often as everyone else did, which was probably why he believed he was as useless as people told him he was.

Another glance at the snotty baby in front of me and okay, so maybe some of it was just natural wussiness and not purely an informed flaw. Still, though. Someone to look up to definitely wouldn't have killed the kid. At the very least, he might not get beat up quite so often.

That was the moment I consciously decided that I was going to be the best older twin sister ever.

Much easier said than done.

* * *

**A/N: Holy crap, guys.**

**_Holy crap, guys._**

**It hasn't even been 24 hours yet and I've gotten five reviews and the alerts and the favorites and _holy crap they're still coming in._**

**This has got to be the fastest I've ever updated ever. Thank youuuuuuuu TTwTT**


	3. Experiment

Being a baby was seriously freaking boring.

After my life-changing epiphany concerning my new role, I started trying to interact with Tsuna more and silently despise him less. When he wanted to play with blocks, I would sit next to him and teach him how to make the biggest towers. When Nana got around to buying us little toy pianos and plastic trumpets and whatnot, I would play along with him and try, with varying amounts of success, to coax him into playing little tunes instead of the random cacophonous noises that he was so very fond of.

He rarely ever objected to my sudden interest in him, although he _did_ draw the line when I tried to get him to play with anything dog related. Nana thought it was adorable and took pictures at every available opportunity. I thought it was pathetic and would bark at him whenever he got too annoying. He shut up _real _quick.

To summarize this all up for you, I spent all day _every _day babysitting a little kid.

It wasn't just boring, it was _exhausting_. I slept more than any baby I'd ever met and I slept _hard_. Like, 'sleep through Tsuna throwing a temper tantrum at 3 AM because I won't wake up and play with him' hard. Nana seemed thankful that she only had to silence one baby a night, so it all worked out pretty well in the end.

On the happier side of things, I was finally starting to pick up on the language, albeit slower than I would have liked. At the very least I knew the terms for all of my toys…and the word for pineapple. Nana was incredibly confused when, after gleefully cackling out my 'first word' (_"Nappo-sama!"_), I burst into uncontrollable giggles that took at least ten minutes to finally quiet down. I may have technically been undead (did that make me a zombie?) and very much chibified, but I was still a diehard otaku and _come on_.

My first word was _Pineapple-sama_.

Imagine Tsuna's face in fourteen years (_holy crap that was a long time_) when Nana tells him that his big sister's first word was synonymous with the name of the man who kept trying to kill him and/or steal his body.

_Ha_.

Other than those little spots of joy in my life, my day was depressingly monotonous and routine. Wake up to Tsuna's crying. Calm him down. Eat. Play with blocks. Watch Tsuna nearly swallow a block and move on to other, less hazardous toys. Eat. Bathe. Sleep. Repeat.

It was maddening.

The most exciting part of the week was grocery day. Nana would gather Tsuna and me up, a twin in each arm, and head out for the supermarket. That was my only chance for the week to scope out my surrounds and maybe even catch a glimpse of a familiar face.

The only thing I could do without were the stares.

A few months into my new life, I had finally managed to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror while Nana was bathing Tsuna and me. I had very nearly flailed at what I saw.

My face wasn't really the problem. Sure, it was a little weird seeing a baby face in the mirror instead of my own, but I was cute enough with my giant puffy baby cheeks to not mind. I even had little wisps of pale honey brown hair coming in that Nana had taken to pinning back with a cloth headband complete with floppy bow.

No, the real problem was with my eyes.

Now, please don't misunderstand. My first reaction upon seeing my eyes wasn't necessarily because I was horrified or whatever. In comparison to the muddy black they used to be, they were actually pretty cool. Instead of any _natural _color (I was in an anime world, god forbid I have normal eyes), they were an _incredibly_ bright shade of orange. I hated to compare the two, but they were somewhat reminiscent of Tsuna's eyes in Hyper Dying Will Mode.

The thing that freaked me right the fuck out was the way they _glowed_.

Whenever the light caught them _just_ right, they went from bright orange to downright radioactive. It was so shocking of an effect that it was almost offensive. It was kind of like looking at a cat's eye in the dark- all bright and shiny and almost like a reflector.

It was hella cool, but _holy crap_. I didn't just have eyes, I had goddamn headlights. It definitely explained why people always looked so shocked whenever I looked at them.

Honestly though. This was an anime universe. You would think that in a universe where people could walk around with eyes and hair that looked like they were carved from freaking rainbows, a little girl with shiny orange peepers would be a normal occurrence.

Apparently it wasn't.

Everywhere I went, people would glance at me and then do a double take like they had seen me beating a kitten or something. They'd get over it pretty fast, but there was something about watching people pause momentarily in whatever they were doing to just _stare_ that really unnerved me. I didn't like being the center of attention.

I mean seriously, people. _They were eyes_. Everyone has 'em. Eventually it got to the point where I just wanted to steal a pair of Nana's sunglasses or something to avoid the looks.

My solution came to me one day when I was laying on the play-quilt that I shared with Tsuna, staring up at the ceiling and watching the blades of the fan whir by. Tsuna was alternating between gnawing on the fin of his large tuna plush (I giggled a little bit inside) and throwing building blocks at me in a an effort to convince me to get up and pay attention to him. Ignoring him as studiously as a baby in orange footie pajamas could, I watched the fan blades go around.

And around.

And around.

And around.

'_So if Ken, Chikusa, and Mukuro are Italian, why are their names Japanese?' _I thought absently to myself, still watching the fan blades. Maybe they had been born in Japan and shipped off to Italy. Had they been kidnapped?

No, no, that couldn't be it. The idea of someone kidnapping Rokudo Mukuro was laughable, insane even. He would convince them to chew off their own leg first.

'_Maybe he couldn't make illusions yet?'_ I tried to reason. This made a little more sense. Maybe he had just been too young to access his flames.

…_Too young to access his flames._

…How old did you have to been to tap into your flames?

I sat up just in time to get beaned in the forehead with a block (courtesy of a drooling Tsuna), but I hardly noticed. This…this was something. It was productive, it was interesting, and it gave me something to _do_ all day other than babysit.

How did one go about activating flames as a baby?

Could it even be _done_ so young?

I frowned hard and started thinking. Maybe flames were like…like chakra from _Naruto_ or something. Maybe your body had little flame-chakra-coils that could be damaged if you tried to access them before they had fully developed. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Could I actually hurt myself doing this?

But no, Reborn and the others were babies. _They_ could use flames just fine. But then again, they were Arcobaleno. There were some very big fundamental differences between a normal baby and an Arcobaleno.

But there were some very big fundamental differences between _me _and a normal baby as well. Besides, what was an Arcobaleno when you got right down to it? An adult chosen for a special purpose who is then turned into a baby in order to better fulfill that purpose.

Was that really so different than what I was?

(The answer was yes, but I chose to ignore that fact.)

I flexed my tiny baby hand, watching how the little rolls of fat squished and reformed at the joints. Did you need some sort of ring to conjure a flame? No, I didn't think so. Reborn and Xanxus could do it without rings. They channeled it through their guns. And Tsuna, Tsuna could set his gloves on fire even before he got the Vongola Ring.

So…did I have to have something to channel them through?

I eyed the block that Tsuna had thrown at me. Without consciously thinking about it, I reached over and plucked it up with my meaty baby fingers, rolling it in between them thoughtfully.

You needed resolve to light a flame. What was my resolve? My eyes traveled back up to the ceiling, the gears in my brain whirring so fast you could almost smell the smoke. Resolve was like determination, right? Or, in a few special cases (and by 'a few' I meant 'Hibari'), anger. So what was I determined to do?

I wanted to be Tsuna's big sister.

…Was that enough?

Looking down at the wooden block, I concentrated with all my might on that one goal. '_I wanna be the best big sister I can possibly be. I want Tsuna to be able to look up to me.'_ My eyebrows furrowed, my jaw locked, and my breathing slowed to a stop. If I'd had more than three or four teeth, they would have been grinding together.

I wanted this to happen.

This _had _to happen.

I opened my eyes.

Nothing.

The block was still the same as it had been before. Tsuna was still teething on his fish. _Nothing had changed._

Was I doing something wrong?

Frowning more deeply, I tried again. '_I want to be able to look out for him.'_

Nothing.

So I tried again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

_Nothing._

Maybe…maybe I just didn't have flames? That had to be it.

If I had them, _something_ would have happened, right? The block would have, I don't know, disintegrated or become harder than a freaking diamond or lit up like a disco ball or _something_. Maybe it would have even done something unheard of and uncover some previously unknown eighth or ninth or twenty thousandth flame. It wasn't supposed to do nothing.

_That wasn't how this was supposed to work._

My block tumbled out my loose grip (_a baby's grip, small and fat and useless useless useless_) and onto the floor, my hopes along with it. My eyes began welling up with salty tears of frustration (_crybaby, crybaby_).

Wasn't everyone supposed to have flames?

Why didn't I?

Quiet tears began rolling down my face. I couldn't do anything useful back home, so why had I expected it to be any different here? I was always going to be a deadweight (_useless, always useless_). Why did I even bother getting my hopes-?

Another block hit me in the face.

I stared at it through my haze of tears for a few moments, uncomprehending. Tsuna wasn't seriously still trying to get my attention, was he? He shouldn't. I was a terrible role model. I couldn't even summon flames and I was _crying_ oh my god I was so pathetic. He'd really be better off ignoring-

This time it wasn't a block, it was an entire person. I wheezed under the weight of my twin brother, falling onto my back and flailing for relief. For a little chibi, this kid was _heavy_. Tsuna crawled on with determination (_resolve resolve you don't have resolve_), another block clutched in his meaty hand. It dug into my stomach as he supported his weight on it, sending a sharp feeling not unlike that of stepping on a lego into my squishy baby tummy.

Freaking _ouch_.

Now both depressed _and _annoyed, I rolled out from under him and sent him a scathing orange glare. He met it with wide, innocent honey brown eyes, all fluttering eyelashes and soft pouts and my heart turned to _goo. _There was no way he and I had come from the same mother. He was too cute. I wasn't. Not me. Never me. My glare faded and I reluctantly turned my attention to what he was doing with his hands.

One block. Two blocks. Three blocks. With jerky, grabby motions, Tsuna gathered all the blocks he had tossed at me. He stacked them up in front of me in a neat little pyramid.

Just like I'd shown him.

I stared.

He stared back.

"Pway," he demanded, nudging the blocks closer to me.

'…_What_?'

His face broke into a wide smile.

"Pway," he repeated, louder this time, as if he could solve all of my problems just by saying it.

As I picked up the blocks and began neatening the pyramid, dry eyes and maybe even smiling, I thought to myself that maybe he could.

So I couldn't summon flames on the first try. Physically, I was a _baby_. I would just have to keep trying until I got results.

…What if nothing happened? What if I really just didn't have flames? My hands stilled over the blocks.

"Pway!" Tsuna commanded again, this time thrusting his (gross, drool covered) tuna plush into my face and waving it around, laughing in a totally situationally inappropriate way.

Then it would be okay. I didn't need them. I didn't have them now and Tsuna still liked me, didn't he?

I'd be okay.

* * *

**A/N: I love you guys TTwTT Seriously, so much loooooove.**

**THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO:**

**Flower power.u know u like it, OwOTunaFishAndPineapplezzOwO , assi, mebo1, April Marciano, Chuu112, Jasmine-angela, Maso-chan, Seithr-Kairy, SinisteRRRsAngel, YuujouKami, Inoue Orihime15, 7, TenraiTsukiyomi, devil190, pizzas are immortal, Bluosity, Sasuna123, moonlight phonex101, Dreamless-Sleep777, Mikkola, RosaLuna416, Tani Yoru, alexag98, vnienhuis, CeramicPizza, Eovin, HG59, KeiGinya, .exile, Pandawasmyballpen, kamikorosuXP, monamonalisa17, NotreDaaaaame, and UltraCreepyKiwi.**

**Plus everyone else who read! I love you, you little creepers, you.**

**Oh my god guys, there are so many of you _ I wanted to respond to each review, but they're seriously still coming in and aaaaaah, this is the best kind of overwhelmed there is.**

**ONE MORE THING:**

**I've just posted a poll on my profile for pairings. There will be at least two more polls about this after this one, but I just want to know what you guys are kinda hoping for before I start introducing more canon characters. Please vote!**

**BY THE WAY GUYS, DID I MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU? CUZ I DO.**


	4. Meeting

**(Age 3) **

Learning how to speak Japanese beyond random words and phrases had been an incredibly frustrating experience.

For one thing, hearing something cooed to you in that baby voice adults are so fond of does not make it stick. If anything, it makes you want to ask them to repeat whatever they said because you couldn't understand a word they were saying. Tsuna seemed to pick up the language with little problem, which was expected since he didn't know anything different. While he wasn't the most elegant of speakers (many of his words could easy be confused with senseless babbling), he could still hold very basic conversations and answer questions and the like.

Me? I took a little more persuading.

When I finally _did _manage to connect the dots and learn how to speak Japanese as if it really _was_ my native language, I only spoke when absolutely necessary. For one thing, I didn't want to come off as too smart. I was a 17 year old in an 3 year old's body for chrissake. I didn't trust my ability to 'dumb myself down', nor did I want to, so I just stayed quiet. Nana worried about me, but since I always answered questions and sometimes talked to Tsuna, she didn't take me to a doctor or anything, to my unending relief. I was pretty used to long periods of silence anyways- while my original father and I had gotten along, we were both the kind of person who preferred silence and thus spent our days exchanging maybe a sentence or two at best.

It was around the time that I was seriously considering stealing Nana's dictionary and just reading it so I'd have something to _do_ other than play with fake telephones and singing books and maybe sometimes busting my ass trying to set a _stupid block_ on fire that the Ninth Vongola Boss finally came around for a visit.

Iemitsu had been mysteriously absent for the better part of three weeks (I was beginning to wonder just what he was telling Nana) and had returned with the crime lord at his side, smiling jovially like the older man wasn't the most powerful mafia boss in the world with the resources to wipe out a small country. The Ninth had an oddly grandfatherly look about him, but I wasn't fooled. Now that I was actually _living _in a world where the mafia had goddamn _superpowers _(in what freaking universe was this a good idea, seriously), I knew I had to be a lot more careful. It was one thing to see Timoteo behind the safety of a screen and take a liking to him. It was another matter entirely to see him face to face and be reminded of the reality that this guy was personally responsible for the deaths of countless people.

Despite all of this, I couldn't bring myself to be truly scared of him. What can I say, I was deeply stupid and he had a cool looking moustache. Besides, you could almost _see_ the sparkles shooting off of him when he'd gotten his first look at Tsuna and his cuteness.

I kept my distance just in case, though.

Tsuna had spent the majority of the day napping after we had played a very lengthy game of tag earlier that morning. Since Tsuna's legs were so stubby compared to mine even at this age, I could literally run circles around him. The only reason he didn't give up in a fit of tears was because every so often I would give in to his pouting and slow down _just enough_ for him to snag me. Considering my only source of entertainment most days was listening to Nana read stories and playing random melodies on my electronic baby xylophone (trying to find my flames had long since graduated from _entertaining _to _really freaking frustrating_), it was surprisingly fun. Tsuna however had been forced to work much harder than I did in our game and was thoroughly exhausted by the time it ended almost two hours later. While I had pounded out a few notes in the first Clannad opening on my little xylophone (I was starting to actually become fond of the thing), Tsuna had passed out on the couch and hadn't even woken up when Iemitsu burst through the door completely unannounced, singing love serenades to a surprised but blushing Nana.

Back to now. The Ninth appeared out of _nowhere_, chuckling heartily at Iemitsu and Nana as the former scooped Tsuna up into his arms and spun around with him. I jumped violently at the sound and my flailing produced a particularly nasty sounding chord that succeeded in jarring Tsuna out of his zombie sleep. I, meanwhile, abandoned my keyboard and gravitated to Nana's side, curious.

We went out to the porch and Iemitsu let Tsuna down so he could run around. Ever the scaredy cat (seriously, this kid was such a pansy. I was trying to break him out of it but _no_), Tsuna did no such thing and ran towards me, trying and failing to hide behind my back. Had Tsuna's miniature 'fro not been the size of a small planet, he may have succeeded. Nana put a hand on my back and nudged me forward, an encouraging smile on her face. I wanted to tell her exactly where she could shove her encouragement- I was standing in front of a friggin' _mafia boss_- but that would be incredibly rude and counterproductive. Toddlers aren't supposed to know how to swear. So, instead of chewing her out, I grabbed Tsuna's hand and took a few steps forward with my head held high.

Now to hope he didn't suspect anything.

Timoteo knelt to our level, his soft smile partially obscured by his rather impressive facial hair.

"And what's your name, hime-chan?"

Was I flattered or creeped way the frig out? I couldn't decide.

I knew that he meant it in a purely familial way- and to be honest, he _was_ technically my grandfather anyways- but that didn't change the fact that as far as I was concerned he was _not _part of my family. He was a man who made a living breaking the law.

Nonetheless, cringing away and running for the hills was very rude and wouldn't really do anything except make me look insane. Instead I tightened my grip on Tsuna's hand and looked Timoteo dead in the eye with what I hoped was an intimidating scowl. Considering my giant eyes and chubby cheeks, it likely looked more like a pout.

God, I hoped my eyes were doing the flashy thing right now. That would make me look so much less pathetic.

"Tsunami, ojii-san." Very desperate to end the conversation (could it even be called that?) and leave, I reached back and drug Tsuna in front of me to face the Ninth. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to use my little brother as a meat shield, but I didn't really care at the moment. I wanted to get _out._ Tsuna shrunk back into me and I had to brace my arms against his back so he didn't knock me over backwards.

"Introduce yourself, Tsu-kun!" Nana prompted gently, face open and encouraging. Tsuna looked at this hesitantly before dropping his gaze to the floor and pressing back against my hands.

"M-my name's…Tsunayoshi…y-you can, um…" His voice faded to a soft whimper and he looked like he was going to cry. Ever the sucker for his cuteness and maybe feeling just a _little _guilty for putting him on the spot like that, I quickly stepped in and put myself back in between my new brother and Timoteo.

"You can call him Tsuna. Momma, can we go play now?" I turned to Nana, hoping that she'd take the hint and let me get Tsuna and myself out of this pool of awkward. She had a slightly stunned expression on her face, but it quickly melted into a gigantic smile that reminded me of Tsuna's and nodded enthusiastically. I wasted no time in leading Tsuna off the front porch and towards our big purple ball that lay forgotten in the middle of the yard. Patting his fluffy afro fondly, I rolled the ball in his direction. Behind me, the adults began making conversation.

"Your daughter seems very well-spoken for her age." The Ninth noted and I had to physically stop myself from freezing. Crap. Was he onto me? No, he couldn't be. I was being ridiculous. If I saw an unusually eloquent little girl, my first thought would be that she's very smart. I would _not _suspect her of being a teenager from a different dimension because that was just _absurd_ and why would anyone ever think that but maybe the Ninth's hyper intuition was telling him something and he was going to find me out and lock me up and _experiment _on me-

I mentally slapped myself and took deep breathes through my nose as inconspicuously as I could. Crime lord or not, I was fairly certain the Ninth wasn't the kind of man to experiment on children. That's what the Estraneo were for. Even so, I plastered a big grin on my face and picked up the purple ball.

"Play with me, Tsu-kun!" My twin blushed in indignation at the nickname (it was common knowledge that he hated it with a passion, but it was just so _cute_) and held out his arms for the ball.

"Nami-nee? Who's he?" He staged whispered, glancing back at Timoteo even as he knelt down to catch the ball I had rolled at him. It rolled on past him, missing him by a few feet and I waited until he was done chasing it down to reply.

"I…" I began to say back, but then thought better of it. Maybe I wasn't supposed to know the answer yet? But then again, it _was_ sort of an obvious conclusion…to me. Maybe not to the average three year old?

I motioned for Tsuna to come closer and he obeyed, abandoning the purple ball so he could walk like a normal person. I cupped my hands around my mouth and leant in close enough that the big white bow on my headband almost got tangled in Tsuna's hair.

"I think he's our grandpa, but I'm not sure." I whispered, glancing back at my parents and Timeteo, all of whom were talking amongst themselves just as quietly. Tsuna just nodded slowly and looked up at me like he couldn't figure out why what I'd just told him couldn't be said aloud like everything else. When I offered no answer, he pouted and scampered back to the ball, pulling his leg back to kick at it.

Fact: Playing catch with Tsuna can get very dangerous very fast. Tsuna had zero coordination. He couldn't aim, he couldn't throw, and he couldn't catch. The only reason we hadn't broken anything yet was because Tsuna could hardly put any power behind his throws. Most of the time, the ball just missed me by a mile and bounced out into the street. To fix this problem, I had taken to rolling the ball back and forth between us instead of tossing it. Tsuna could chase it to his heart's content and then kick it back at me. His aim was so bad that I in turn could burn some energy chasing it around the yard before the process restarted.

Today, however, our game was interrupted by the appearance of the neighborhood Chihuahua. Personally I didn't have a problem with the thing other than its yippyness, but Tsuna was terrified of it (and all other dogs) for some reason. Maybe he was just a cat person. That would certainly explain his affection for Nuts in the future.

The small dog slipped through the bars of our gate and padded over to Tsuna, who fell over in his haste to escape. He did nothing but scream and flail as the tiny furball jumped on his chest and started licking at his face. I stood to the side and giggled at the picture they made, a sound that was echoed by the adults behind me. When Tsuna's wails began to reached hysterical pitch, I finally stopped my giggling and plucked the tiny dog off his chest. It was a bit heavy for my scrawny toddler arms, so I set it down quickly a few feet away and went to comfort the now openly bawling Tsunayoshi.

"Neh, Tsu-kun. The dog isn't going to hurt you. He's just a puppy." My words didn't seem to have any effect on the teary-eyed chibi, so I settled for a different approach. I knelt down on the ground and patted his head comfortingly. Tsuna, apparently, was having none of my hesitant shit and glomped me. Barely resisting the urge to '_Awwww_' like the depraved fangirl I was, I hugged him back and tried not to make a face at how his snot and tears were getting all over my purple shirt. He was hugging me back with a ferocity I didn't think a toddler could have, obviously still terrified of the dog that was sniffing at his feet. It was tight enough to actually hurt, at any rate. Slowly and carefully, I pulled us both to our feet and awkwardly hobbled us back to Iemitsu, Timoteo, and Nana. With a pointed stare at Nana and a heavy, somewhat grossed out pout on my face, I offered up my twin brother.

"Fix him." I demanded. Instead of Nana (you know, the only parent that was around often enough to actually _know _how to calm her kid down) Iemitsu grinned his rugged, manly grin and plucked Tsuna off me. Well, the better word would be 'pried'. My feet almost made it off the floor before Tsuna released me from his death grip. With no small amount of reluctance at leaving Tsuna with Iemitsu, I retreated to the Chihuahua puppy, who was sniffing the discarded purple ball curiously. With a bit of effort, I picked it up and deposited it just outside the gate, glaring sternly and instructing it to go back home. I knew it probably couldn't understand me, but I always talked to animals anyways. To my slight surprise, the dog obeyed and yipped at me before turning around and trotting off down the sidewalk. I turned around just in time to see Timoteo's flaming fingers make contact with Tsuna's forehead. I turn around for three seconds and Tsuna's being attacked by an old man with combustible hands. How was this my life.

I _knew_ what he was doing, but that didn't make seeing it any weirder. My brother stared at the fire curiously (if _that _was going to be his reaction when strangers approached him with fire, then we had some serious work to do on his self-preservation skills) before yawning widely and passing out on Iemitsu's shoulder, tears and flames forgotten. I clambered back up on the porch and watched him curiously. I was almost jealous of his sleeping abilities. I was something of a night owl, which didn't really work out well in a family of early risers. I took comfort in the knowledge that one day Tsuna would grow out of his morning chipperness and turn into a lazy snoring teenager like the rest of the world.

Alarm bells went off in my head as the Ninth turned towards me. No. No way. He could poke Tsuna with sky flames all day if he wanted, but he wasn't getting anywhere _near _me with those fingers of his. ('_But maybe they'll unlock your flames?' 'No no no, still not worth it.' _Besides, I had a sneaking suspicion that these were supposed to _seal _flames) For the second time that day, he knelt down to me level and I took a tiny step back, tensed and ready to run. Instead of giving me the death poke, he simply smiled.

"My dear Tsunami…you have the strangest eyes." Feeling somewhat insulted, I scowled and fought the urge to hide my face.

"Momma says they're pretty." I huffed defensively. Forget Momma, _I _said they were pretty. Orange was a cool color. He was probably just jealous because _his _eyes were all boring and brown. Timoteo, realizing he'd offended me, quickly backtracked.

"They're beautiful. And very unique, if I do say so myself." I flushed slightly and looked away. Back in my old life, my eyes had been so dark of a brown that I myself had thought them black until I was nearly twelve. Here, however… well, not so much.

After my various experiments with flames had yielded no results (to be entirely honest, I was hoping that I'd have mist flames so I could hide my eyes sometimes and go out in public without getting stared at. Or maybe storm flames so I could disintegrate everyone who looked at me funny?), I had grown out my bangs and tried to hide my bright orange eyes with them, but Nana would have none of it and took to pinning my bangs back with different bowed headbands that changed color every day. I actually started to grow fond of the things, which was why even now after I had consented to getting my fringe cut back to a normal length I still wore the headbands.

"…Thank you?" I tried, unsure on how to respond to the compliment. Timoteo smiled and ruffled my light brown hair affectionately. It took a large amount of effort to keep from flinching away. I knew who he was but he was still a _stranger _and he was _touching me _and- was I developing some sort of aversion to physical contact from people who weren't Tsuna and Nana? That was kind of weird. I would have to think about that a little more later.

"Look out for your brother, alright? He's going to need a strong sister to help him out." I barely, _barely_ kept from snorting. I knew _that _better than anyone did.

He didn't have to tell me twice.

* * *

**A/N: Timoteo :D He creeps me out a little. I think it shows in my writing.**

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY TSUNA! And belated to Reborn, but _Tsuna._**

**The poll is still open and oh my goodness. You people really like Mukuro, don't you? XD I completely agree, though I must say I'm curious as to why he's the one in the lead. I myself have a special soft spot for redheads, if you know what I mean~**

**MASSIVE THANK YOUS TO:**

**Flower power.u know u like it, OwOTunaFishAndPineapplezzOwO , assi, mebo1, April Marciano, Chuu112, Jasmine-angela, Maso-chan, Seithr-Kairy, SinisteRRRsAngel, YuujouKami, Inoue Orihime15, 7, TenraiTsukiyomi, devil190, pizzas are immortal, Bluosity, Sasuna123, moonlight phonex101, Dreamless-Sleep777, Mikkola, RosaLuna416, Tani Yoru, alexag98, vnienhuis, CeramicPizza, Eovin, HG59, KeiGinya, .exile, Pandawasmyballpen, kamikorosuXP, monamonalisa17, NotreDaaaaame, UltraCreepyKiwi, Saskue's-Killer112, Viviene, Bishi-Bishi, nandive, shanagi95, Hayate The Soul Reaper, InTheDarkestHowers, Juliedoo, KuroHi91, Vikky Plushie, Sgaapje, sync94, and virusxD.**

**SUPER SPECIAL THANK YOUS TO:**

**1. KeiGinya, who pointed out a little error I made last chapter. If any of you guys catch any spelling, grammatical, or plot-related errors, please feel free to point them out! I won't get mad. Ever. Promise.**

**2. The 600 of you who have clicked on and read this story. 600, guys. ****_600. _****asdfgjkl;;HOLY CRAP.**

**I love yooouuuuu TTwTT**


	5. Kokuyo Land

**(Age 4)**

The next time he came to visit, Iemitsu decided that he would take a few days off from being the Best Worst-Father-Ever and maybe, y'know, _spend time with his children. _And his wife. But preferably his children. His first order of business was to gather up his family and take them to a little place called Kokuyo Land.

Yeah, I freaked out.

Wasn't Kokuyo Land supposed to be like…abandoned? Dilapidated? _Inhabited by mafia criminals?_ Apparently not quite yet. The Kokuyo of the past (er, present.) was a bustling children's museum slash theme park that specialized in preaching the joys of personal hygiene.

After I stopped fangirling long enough to really think, I was kind of disappointed.

I mean, I had nothing against Kokuyo Land. For me, this was like the field trip of the century. Tsuna, however? Not so much.

I kind of wanted to go up, take Iemitsu by the shoulders, and shake some common sense into him. He leaves for _month, _brings a wanted criminal to meet his twin toddlers, leave then leaves _again_ without any sort of explanation and the first thing he want to do is visit a place called Health Land.

_Health Land._

I mean… _seriously_.

We all piled into the car for the twenty minute drive. Nana buckled Tsuna and I into our baby seats with practiced ease while Iemitsu stood behind her almost awkwardly, like he wasn't quite sure what he was doing. I wanted to feel sorry for him, but there was a little part of me whispering maliciously (_he deserves it, where was he when Nana needed him when Tsuna needed him when you needed him_) and thriving on how out of place he seemed in the cute little picture of family we were currently making.

That little part of me was beginning to annoy and scare me in equal parts. I blocked it out.

"Momma?" I asked (_Momma, calling her Momma was okay because Mom was Mom and Nana was Momma and never the two shall meet_). "How long're we gonna be at the health place?"

Nana looked up from where she was buckling my seatbelt with an odd combination smile-pout. She seemed perpetually caught between elation and disappointment that I had completely skipped over the 'tewwible twos' and 'twoubwesome twees'. I made a conscious effort to keep my sentences relatively simple because while an above-average four-year-old was okay, a four-year-old with the vocabulary of a twenty-something sailor was decidedly abnormal.

I couldn't afford to be special.

"However long you want, Nami-chan," Nana replied, oblivious to my thoughts. As Iemitsu behind the wheel, Tsuna bounced in his car seat nervously with his tuna plush clutched between his hands.

"Awe thewe gonna be w-wrollercoastuhw- wrollercoast…urrr…" He struggled with his 'r's for a moment, trying to make them sound like Nana and mine. He looked over at me with wide, pleading eyes. Unfortunately, Tsuna had long ago discovered the absolutely unholy hold he had got over me when she started batting those pretty eyelashes (oh god, he was such a girl) and had taken to abusing his whenever possible. Catching both Tsuna's giant doe-eyed look, Nana just giggled and withdrew from the backseat, taking her place in the passenger's seat.

"Rollercoasters?" I offered, drawing out the 'r's. Tsuna nodded violently.

"Yeah, those."

"HA HA!" Iemitsu's booming laughter came so suddenly and loudly that I actually jumped in my seat a little. "There's only one that you're tall enough to ride, kiddo. But don't worry! One day you'll get big and strong like your papa…"

Tuning out what I knew to be blatant lies, I looked out the window. The streets of Namimori whizzed by, a blur of beige houses and trim lawns that eventually gave way to concrete shopping centers and businesses.

We were going to Kokuyo Land.

If you were going to get technical, I was going to crash Mukuro's house before he even moved in. We were both only four years old right now, so he wouldn't even be out of the Estraneo for at least another four or five, right? Or was it longer? Good god, I really wished that someone had had the foresight to give me a fricking timeline or something. How was I supposed to do stupid and borderline suicidal things like leave dog treats on the porch for Ken or give Chrome chocolates or something if I didn't even know when they were going to show up? I was a failure as an otaku, seriously.

Maybe I should steal a sharpie and write their names on the walls or something creepy like that. That would sufficiently freak them out, right? …Since when had freaking them out become the goal? Since when had _meeting_ them _period_ become the goal? No. No, I was going to be the smart little reincarnation and stay the hell away from the violent mafia criminals. Fluffy and tsundere he may be, but Ken had a history of biting people.

And Mukuro was totally a mind rapist who would probably possess me and make me eat my brother or something morbid like that because he could.

That too.

…So I probably wasn't going to come back to Kokuyo Land after this if I had any say in it. Maybe I should steal a sharpie and write _my_ name on the walls, just to prove I was there. Yeah. That sounded good. Probably against the rules and considered a form of vandalism, but they were just going to tear the building down within the next decade anyways.

Now I just had to find a sharpie.

* * *

Kokuyo Land was…an adventure. Yeah, let's say it like that, makes it sound less traumatizing. For a place called 'Health Land', it was breathtakingly disgusting. I bet it was breaking just about every health code in the book just by _existing_.

For one thing, it was absolutely _crawling _with kids. Not the nice, decently well behaved kids, either. No, these were the annoying little hellions that shrieked at everything and threw massive temper tantrums and ate their own boogers and made _other people _eat their boogers and good god it was disgusting. While watching a pair of siblings attempt to kill each other by shoving corndogs down each other's throats, I was hit with a sudden rush of affection for my own well behaved wimpy wallflower of a twin.

"Don't ever become a man," I mumbled, grabbing him in a side hug that was one part affection and two parts desperate fear with a touch of chokehold mixed in. He spluttered and nearly tripped over my feet.

"N-Nami-nee! Let go!" He squealed, trying to struggle out of my grip and walk beside Nana at the same time. I pouted and squeezed him tighter.

"No. You need to grow up and be a _girl_, Tsu-kun. You'd be so cute!"

"I'm a _boy_," He stressed, both puffing up and deflating at the same time. I giggled. We'd had this conversation often enough that he could probably repeat it back to me in his sleep. "Boys can't be cute. Momma- Momma says I'm gonna gwow up to be big like Daddy. You'll see!"

I released him and patted his untamable mane of brown fluffy fondly.

Poor Tsu-kun. Momma was _lying_.

In addition to the masses of grubby brats, there were some serious structural issues. About an hour in, we'd all pulled into a tooth shaped cart on the Ferris Wheel and _holy shit_ I'd thought we were all about to die. That stupid box swayed violently in the lightest of breezes and made ominous creaking noises every time someone moved. I swear something even popped off the cart below ours at some point.

To top it off, I still hadn't managed to find that sharpie.

After two or three hours of looking at various health exhibits and playing with a few of the interactive models, Nana and Iemitsu finally decided that it was time for a break. After wondering for a while, we stumbled across a small indoor kiddie playground built around a large statue of a smiling tooth character riding a toothbrush like a horse.

I eyed it with no small amount of suspicion. Like the rest of the park, this playground had something of a child infestation problem. _So many gross toddler germs_ and _oh my god was that kid chewing on the statue_ and general feelings of _oh god kill it with fire_.

Like _hell_ my parents were making us play here.

Latching on to Nana and Iemitsu's hands, I quickened my pace and tried to tug them past the mass of shrieking children. Tsuna seemed to catch my drift and slipped his hand out of Nana's to push against our parent's legs from behind.

Unfortunately, they were having none of it.

"Oi, Hime-chan, Tsu-kun, what's the big rush? Why don't you two go and play for a bit while Mommy and I rest our feet?" Without waiting for our input, Iemitsu placed a mammoth hand on each of our backs and nudged us forward. I turned around intending to protest, but any words died a screaming death the moment I caught the sappy, gooey looks that Iemitsu and Nana were shooting each other. Tsuna and I traded looks.

They wanted gushy, mushy _alone time_. Gross.

"Let's just go, Tsu-kun," I grumbled, repressing the urge to gag. People in love were so creepy sometimes. Before I catch them doing anything that might traumatize my fragile little psyche, I screwed up all of my courage and plunged into the sea of children with a large grimace.

I really hated kids, Tsuna notwithstanding.

My younger twin hesitated for just a moment before I felt his hand clutch mine in a death grip. He stuck so close to my back that he clipped my heels a few times.

I scanned the crowd. Gross little blond kid, grubby rosette chewing on statue, pudgy brunette crying on a foam mat, snooty redhead whining at her parents, painfully adorable ginger kid sitting by himself with a bottle of hand sanitizer.

Oh, hallelujah.

Suddenly breaking out into a powerwalk (and consequently almost pulling Tsuna so hard he almost tripped and fell on his face), I walked over to the little red-haired germophobe with my eyes focused on the frames of his glasses instead of his eyes. My eyes were a lot less likely to suddenly start glowing at people if they didn't meet them head on, and scaring away the only hygienic kid around (which, considering how we were in _Health Land_, was more than a little depressingly ironic) wasn't really on my checklist for the day.

"Hi. Can we borrow your hand sanitizer?" So maybe subtle wasn't really my forte.

"Augh!" The poor kid nearly jumped out of his skin and pressed a hand against his stomach like it was threatening to jump out of his mouth and attack us in self-defense. Pushing his little glasses farther up his nose, he looked up at us with nervous green eyes.

I was getting a violent sense of déjà vu.

"Tsu-kun, say hi." I commanded. Tsuna, who had tried to hide behind me in favor of introducing humself, blushed darkly and inched out from my back.

"Hi."

Someone please explain to me how this was the same kid who was going to talk the majority of the Italian mafia into becoming his loyal bitches. I mean subordinates.

I let go of his clammy hand and sat down next to the redhead (bright red hair and some weird stomach problem, why did this seem so familiar?). I smiled in a way that I really hoped looked friendly as opposed to creepy and strained.

"I'm Sawada Tsunami, but you can just call me Nami like everyone else. This," I tugged Tsuna down to our level with a sharp jerk. "is my twin, Tsunayoshi. He's kind of shy," I stage whispered, winking conspiratorially. True to form, Tsuna blushed again and began pouting, eyebrows furrowing over his big sparkly eyes and _oh god cuteness overload_.

"Am not! M-my name's Tsuna. Who awe y-you?" Tsuna asked, chin tilted up in defiance of my words. Only his slight stutter betrayed how nervous he still was, to my glowing pride. The redhead, however, didn't have an annoying big sister to egg him on into courage. He made a small noise in the back of his throat and shrunk back like we were cats and he was a mouse.

"…I-Irie Shoichi."

…Oh.

My brain was exploding.

_Oh._

…_Irie Shoichi._

…Oh my _god _he was so cute.

I squealed a little. Shoichi shrunk back in response and I quietly stifled the noise, still beaming like an idiot. Oh, this was a good day. Forget the multitudes of screaming, drooling brats, I was in _Kokuyo Land _talking to _Irie Shoichi_. Nothing could have ruined my day.

Famous last words.

Before I was able to do something friendly like offer to play with him (or something creepy like spontaneously glomp him), there was a sharp yelp and a sudden flash of red. The next thing I know, Shoichi had scuttled about two feet back on his elbows and the little red-haired girl from before, the one mouthing off to her mom,was sprawled on her back where he had been sitting.

"…Are you okay?" I began, but silenced myself with a stifled yelp when she turned a pair of violet eyes burning with annoyance in my general direction, never once looking me straight in the face and instead focusing on a spot between my lower lip and the bottom of my chin. Her cheeks were beginning to flush red with either anger or embarrassment, I couldn't tell. Judging by her refusual to look me in the eye, I guessed the latter. She quickly scrambled back to her feet, brushing off her obviously expensive skirt with shaky hands.

"W-watch it loser!" She spat, her voice heavy with some sort of accent. European, maybe French? My eyebrows shot up. This girl couldn't be more than a year older than myself at the most, making her…five, tops. Why did a five year old have an accent? Unless she was bilingual?

Color me impressed.

But also very annoyed.

You _do not_ insult Irie Shoichi in front of me.

That _bitch._

"Why don't _you_ watch it? You're the one who ran over him. And another thing, what kind of person falls on someone else and then expects _them_ to apologize! _Snooty_ _jerkwads, _that's who! Walk much?!" I snarled, jumping to my feet and staring her down with the best death glare I could muster.

Hell hath no fury like a butthurt fangirl.

Tsuna made a small noise of shock in the back of his throat, like he was torn between staying with me and running for his life. The last time he'd seen me so annoyed was that one time at the park…

But that was completely unrelated.

The red-head's eyes snapped up to mine, a death glare of her own trying it's best to poke holes into my soul. It faltered for a moment before melting into shock and some emotion I couldn't recognize.

Oh goody, my eyes were glowing. I hoped she was intimidated, because now that we were both standing I could tell that she was a good three inches taller than me.

We stared each other down for a good thirty seconds or so and the longer it went on, the less surprised the girl looked and the more excited she looked.

Wait, excited? Um, what?

Wasn't this supposed to be the part where we get into an epic bitchfight and I assert my dominance by smearing her prissy face into the dirt?

"…You. Stupid orange…thing. Come with me." Without another word, she snatched me by the wrist and began dragging me off through the crowd of people towards the woman she'd been griping at earlier. Was this her mother? …Was I about to be chewed out by a random stranger for blowing up at her daughter?

That tattling _bitch._

"Let me go, you little leprechaun!" I hissed, trying and failing to yank my arm out of her fingers. Jesus- for a little girl, this kid had a _grip_. Holy crap.

"Oi, _nourrice__!_" The girl called. The tall brunette woman turned around and _oh my god_. I was so startled that momentarily forgot that I was supposed to fight off kidnappers with tooth and nail, whether they were five or fifty.

That woman was _gorgeous._

Her long brown hair (it was so shiny I could've seen my _face_ in it) was curled into several loose, gentle ringlets. Her violet eyes were bright and shined with self-confidence. The business suit clinging to her curves was obviously tailor made and of very fine quality, and holy crap her boobs were _huge._

I mean, I knew I was in an anime but _seriously_. This woman should be walking with a permanent hunch, she was so top heavy. I was jealous.

"_Cheri_, we are in Japan. Speak the native language like you were taught." The woman commanded through a slight accent. Even her _voice _was pretty. I was starting to feel inferior already. The little red-haired girl huffed through her nose and shook her head rapidly, a stream of ridiculously fast French spilling out of her mouth. Her mother looked on with an air of cool detachment before turning her gaze to me and looking me up and down with a critical violet eye. I fought the urge to squirm and instead stared right back with a set jaw.

Just remember, Nami. This woman spawned the bitch that tried to pick on Sho-chan. Hold on to your anger. If you're angry, you can't get intimidated and run screaming back to Iemitsu. _Be a man!_

"…Little girl. What is your name?" My jaw twitched.

"Sawada Tsunami, ma'am."

"Sawada Tsunami. You have the strangest eyes…" The woman trailed off, staring at me almost hungrily. The little girl reached up and tugged on her mother's business skirt, babbling more highly annoyed French. The woman nodded sharply. "Sawada Tsunami. Take me to your parents."

Did these people have something against asking nicely?

Nevertheless, she was an adult and according to Nana I was supposed to be the obedient child. Then again, according to Nana I was also supposed to be the quiet calm one who never lost her temper _ever_, but…well, yeah. I was starting to feel just a little guilty about that.

It may have had something to do with the sneaking suspicion that I had just been tattled on and was about to receive the grounding of a lifetime. The only upside of this was that maybe Tsuna would-

…Oh _shit._

* * *

After collecting Tsuna, who had retreated to a corner with Shoichi and was hesitant to come out until angry!Nami had gone away (yeah, I was totally feeling bad now), and waving goodbye to a thoroughly terrified Shoichi (who I had every intention to hunt down and stalk- I mean befriend), I had taken the pretty woman to meet Nana and Iemitsu. Instead of immediately berating them for raising such a hellish little girl like I had expected her to, the woman introduced herself as 'Sophia' and proceeded to chat up my parents like there was no tomorrow. Satisfied that her mother was doing her job (which was _what _exactly?), the red-head turned to me with a disarmingly innocent grin. She moved forward as if to kiss my cheeks, caught herself, and bowed instead.

I was totally lost.

"Hey, traffic cone eyes." Hello to you too, bitch."We're friends now. Don't complain about it, that's annoying."

Um.

"_Excuse me?_"

"My momma told me that I had to make a friend while we were here in Japan, so she made my nanny drag me out here to this stupid museum." Wait, so that gorgeous woman was her _nanny?!_ I thought nannies were supposed to be old and ugly! "You're interesting and you know weird insults, so now we're friends. You have to send me letters so my mom knows you exist. Don't complain," She ended sharply before I could protest. I did it anyways.

"You can't just _make _people be your friend, leprechaun. I refuse." Her eyebrow twitched.

"Stop calling me that! My name is _M.M._, traffic cone. Say it with me- _M. M._"

_..._

_Uh._

Of all the freaking red heads I could have met-

This was getting ridiculous.

"D-Don't call me traffic cone, leprechaun! My name is _Tsunami_. Say it with me, _Tsu-na-mi._" I imitated, only stuttering a little bit through my shock. Her violet eyes flared up in indignation.

"I'm taller than you are, you midget! I'm not a leprechaun!"

"At least _my _haircut doesn't make me look like a little boy!"

"Take that back, you pumpkin!"

"_What did you just call me-?!_"

And thus, a beautiful friendship was born.

...I never did find that sharpie.

* * *

**A/N: ...Aaaaand psycho-defensive-butthurt-otaku!Nami appears. Show of hands, how many of you expected M.M.? :D I have some plans for her, but nothing too major, fufufu~**

**AUGHMYGOD GUYS. Fifty-one reviews TTwTT. ShinigamiinPeru was the one who sent in the fiftieth review. Peru, I will totally write you a little Undead-Otaku-Related omake of a scenario of your choice if you want me to. **

**CAN'T HOLD ALL THESE FEELS, GUYS.**

**Anyways, this entire chapter was written on my iPhone. AS SUCH, there are bound to be a kajillion auto-correct mistakes that I missed. If you find one, tell me o3o I plan to go back later and edit them out with a real computer.**

**SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TOOO:**

**Everyone :D Again, I'll get all your names when I get a real computer. I love you guuuuuuuys TTwTT**

**ALSO, THE POLL IS STILL OPEN! Mukuro is in the lead, but Yamamigo and Enma are tied for second. When did Enma get so many supporters? XD I haven't even mentioned him.**


	6. School

**(Age 5)**

The first day of school went about as well as I expected it to.

After countless years of sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs and watching my little brother become more and more uncoordinated despite my best efforts, I was finally getting out of the house and into a public situation that didn't involve cooing cashier ladies at the supermarket or crazy redhead bitches. I was _excited_, darn it. I was very aware that most of the people I was going to meet were snotty, unintelligent five year olds, but even that couldn't put a damper on my excitement.

It was like this:

For the longest time, I had just been sort of…loitering, I guess, around the Sawada household. Sending letters to M.M. was nice and all and was a hell of a good way to vent my aggression, but I only spent maybe half an hour a week getting to write them. The rest of my days were spent stuck in boredom. Watching Tsuna trip over his own two feet was only hilarious the first twenty times.

Iemitsu was in the middle of one of his yearlong disappearing acts, so it was Nana who drove Tsuna and me to school. We sat in the backseat, both visibly nervous but for completely different reasons. I was bouncing on the edge of my seat while my counterpart had shrunk into a ball against the car door, hands nervously playing with the hem of his soft orange shirt. He was sort of being a buzzkill, but I couldn't honestly get mad at him when I knew that school was going to become the bane of his existence.

But that didn't have to mean it was going to be _mine_.

I reached over the car and detached Tsuna's fingers from his shirt, clasping them in both of mine and practically vibrating in my seat. I had the mother of all grins plastered on my face, which was so different from my usual blank boredom expression (or the ultra elusive rageface) that Tsuna actually raised his gaze from the car floor to look at me like I was insane.

"Smile, Tuna-fish!" He made a face at the nickname. After years and years of hearing him whine about being called 'Tsu-kun' after Tsuna got it into his head that big boys didn't have cutesy nicknames, I had finally given in to his pleas and puppy eyes and stopped calling him that, to his unending relief. Unfortunately, I then christened him with a new nickname, Tuna-fish. He was old enough to understand the play on words and resented it almost as much as he resented Tsu-kun.

Naturally, Tsuna completely ignored me and pouted, looking up at me with his devastatingly cute puppy eyes.

"Do you think they'll like us?"

_…Guh._

The urge to glomp was too great.

I released Tsuna's hand and launched myself at him with a barely contained squeal, but was stopped midflight by my seatbelt and was tugged back to my side of the car just before I could make contact. I instead reached over and ruffled his gravity-defying afro. Tsuna, who had by now accepted that my spontaneous outbursts of affection were normal and generally unavoidable, tried and failed to slap my hands out of his hair. When he succeeded only in accidentally boxing his own ear, he gave up and sulked in his seat.

"Don't worry, Tsu-kun! The other kids will like you just fine. If they don't, just come tell Momma, okay? She'll sort 'em out!" Nana's beaming face was reflected through the rearview mirror and Tsuna brightened up a bit. I topped it off by resuming my excited bouncing and nodding heartily.

"What she said. Besides, you'll be with me. I'll scare off the bullies for you!" Tsuna hesitated for a moment before nodding his head slowly.

"I believe you." This was awesome, because I fully intended to make good on that promise. While I may not be the toughest kid on the block, I was fully confident in my ability to floor any angry five year old that came my way.

Barring Hibari Kyoya, anyways. Did he even go to public school?

…Actually, scratch that. Did he even have _parents?_

While I contemplated the home life of someone I was planning to avoid like the plague, Nana was parking the car with starry eyes. Tsuna unbuckled his seatbelt and took a deep breath in, wringing his hands with nerves. When I made no motion to follow his lead, he frowned and waved a hand in front of my face. I didn't respond.

_'Does he have any siblings? Are we going to see him at school today? Actually, are we going to see _anyone _from the canon today? Well, of course we are, this is the only kindergarten in Namimori. Will I recognize anyone in our class? What should I do? Should I make friends? Are the other kids going to shun me because I'm 'Dame-Tsuna's sister? Wait, he doesn't even have that nickname yet…'_

"NAMI-NEE-CHAN!" A high pitched shout broke my rambling thoughts and I turned to find the source. Tsuna was standing outside the car with an annoyed look on his face, shifting from foot to foot. I quickly undid my seatbelt and slipped out of the car to join him. My little brother wasted almost no time in ducking behind me and using me as a meat shield. Nana laughed at my pouty face and softly separated Tsuna from my back, taking our hands in hers and walking off towards the school gates, talking all the way.

"…And don't be afraid to ask questions, okay? The teachers are there to help you, though I can't imagine what you'll be learning on the first day of kindergarten. Make sure you're nice to the other children, okay? And Tsunami?" I looked up at the mention of my name, my small stature forcing me to crane my neck back a little more than what was comfortable. I really wanted to grow- hopefully this body inherited Iemitsu's height genes instead of Nana's. Sure, she was tall to a six-year-old, but in comparison to some other people I'd seen walking around she was pretty small.

"Yeah?" Nana smiled down at me and, had her other hand not been in Tsuna's Ultimate Deathgrip, I think she may have reached down and pinched my cheeks or readjusted my headband or something.

"Look out for Tsu-kun, alright?" I blinked a few times before nodding. That was sort of the plan, anyways. Besides, as far as Nana was concerned I'd been saving Tsuna's ass since we were in diapers, be it from accidentally stomping on legos to crazy Chihuahua attacks.

Tsuna, who I knew could hear everything we were saying, wisely didn't argue. Nana turned on him next.

"Tsu-kun, you have to promise to watch out for your sister, too! Make sure she doesn't get hurt!" I stared at the side of Nana's face like she had lost her mind. If I really did get into a fistfight with a five-year-old, I wasn't going to let myself lose. I also couldn't really see Tsuna stopping anyone who wanted to try and take a swing at me, either. The kid was a creampuff.

Tsuna seemed to share my sentiments and sent Nana a very dubious look. The longer he stared, though, the less uncertain his look became. I watched with eyebrows raised as he gave a grimly determined nod.

"I promise." Nana looked delighted and finally released our hands since we had finally reached the colorful, paint-splattered gate of the kindergarten. She nudged us both forward into the slow stream of equally as apprehensive children that were pushing open the gate and entering the schoolyard, a watery grin on her face and tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. A quick glance around me showed that pretty much every mother in sight was mirroring her expression right down to the lone tear that threatened to fall.

Drama Queens.

Grabbing Tsuna's hand in a deathgrip of my own to keep him from turning tail and bolting, I waved goodbye to Nana (who was quickly being swallowed up by the group of sympathetic moms who had already been through this with their older children and now wanted to form a Support Group For New Mothers) and traipsed through the gate, half-dragging the now petrified Tsuna along behind me.

To my tiny chibi body, the inside of the schoolyard looked like a massive playground full of sandboxes and swings. There were few kids already crowded around the jungle gym and some children had already begun making groups, standing in loose circles with nervous but warm smiles.

"Come on, slow poke! How're you gonna watch out for me if you're lagging behind like that?" I teased, looking around with no small amount of awe. To my surprise, Tsuna actually picked up his pace and had that determined look on his face again.

"Sorry, Nami-nee…" I slowed my pace and looked at him curiously, brushing some of my light brown hair out of my eyes.

"You…you weren't actually _serious_ about that, were you?" I asked, eyebrows raising higher with every word. Tsuna reddened and met my eyes with an angry pout.

"Of course I was! I promised!" I stared at him harder. I got the feeling that wasn't the whole story. Tsuna's glare faltered under my orange stare until he finally caved in and looked at his feet, tugging his own hand out of mine so he could stuff them in his pockets. "It's just… you always protect me, right? L-like from the scary dogs and big crowds and m-mean people. But I'm your _brother_, so shouldn't I be protecting you? I-I mean…you're a girl! And mom always told me to take care of girls because they weren't as t-tough as b…as b…boys…why are you looking at me like that?"

_Sexist piglet says what._

I was _glaring_, cheeks puffed out and hands planted firmly on my hips. I flicked him harshly on the forehead and huffed when he cried out and covered the spot with both hands. I could actually feel my eyes burning fiery orange holes through his head.

"_Aren't as tough as boys?!_ Girls are plenty tough, thank you very much! Just because we're smaller and like cute things doesn't make us _weak!_ It just means that we can appreciate the _nicer _things in life instead of going around punching things like stupid, uneducated Neanderthals! Women have done all _sorts_ of great things in history! _We're not weak._" Flashes of Kyoko and Haru's treatment during the future arc came to mind and only stoked my fire.

"Um, Nee-chan-"

"And another thing! Women are good for more than just _cooking! _We aren't fragile little things that will crumble to dust if you poke us wrong, darn it! _We're _the ones supporting the household half the time, anyways! While the men are out gallivanting into the sunset, we actually have to raise our freaking kids into respectable adults while juggling our own jobs and we _still _look pretty doing it! TSUNA!" My brother flinched violently and looked up at me with scared eyes.

"Y-yes!"

"You have to promise me that you'll never say such sexist things ever again!"

"W-wha-?"

"_Sawada Tsunayoshi. PROMISE ME._"

"O-okay! I promise!" He squealed, backing up a good few paces with his hands held up in surrender. I nodded and rocked back onto my heels, anger appeased.

"Good." That was the one serious beef I had with the original Reborn series. With the exception of Hana Kurokawa, Lal Mirch (who was totally my hero), and maybe Bianchi, all the women in the series were simpering flakes. It irritated the ever-loving hell out of me and if I could only accomplish one thing in this lifetime, I was going to beat the sexism out of the Vongola with _gusto._

"Um, Nami-nee-chan?"

"What?"

"What's 'sexist' mean? And what's a… a nee-ander-tha…thalal?"

"'Neanderthal', Tuna-fish."

…Although I might have to wait a few years first.

* * *

After chasing Tsuna in circles for his insolence, I let him off the hook with one final vengeful noogie. As he rubbed his head with teary puppy eyes (and they were so damn cute I just _had _to lean over and hug him) I took a moment to scope out the rest of the crowd.

The biggest group by far was a gathering of boys and a few curious girls just next to the door to the building. After a bit of tiptoeing and neck craning, I could finally see who was in the middle. A pair of boys were showing off their giant card collections ("_W-o-w, where'd you find that one?_" _"My dad bought it for me for my birthday last year!")_ and I almost, _almost _brushed them off and moved on. It wasn't until Tsuna joined me in my efforts to get a look at the group that I began having a strange sense of déjà vu.

"Nami-nee-chan, they're trading baseball cards! Can we go see?" Tsuna asked, actually looking somewhat excited. My little brother was such a nerd sometimes. I shrugged and let go of his hand, trailing after him over to the group, a nagging feeling in the back of my head. Oblivious to my confusion, Tsuna quickly absorbed into the crowd of fanboys and soon-to-be fangirls.

"_Haha!_"

Then it clicked.

Sure, the voice was about three octaves higher and the face was a lot more round…

But the hair and the eyes were the same. The laugh matched. I could recognize that head rubbing thing he had going on from a mile away.

In the end, however, it was the giant, star-splitting, put-the-sun-to-shame grin that gave him away.

In the center of kindergarteners, just across from a boy with dark brown hair and holding the largest folder of baseball cards I'd seen in my life, six-year-old Yamamoto Takeshi laughed and asked the crowd if anyone had a American Hank Aaron card he could see because he'd been looking for one _forever_.

I turned around, buried my face in my hands- partly so Tsuna wouldn't have to see his big sister loose her mind and partly to muffle the noise- and _squealed._

_Oh-my-god-he-was-so-cute._

And so it was with a flushed face and a brain on the verge of exploding that I decided maybe school would be more fabulous than I thought.

* * *

**A/N: Ugh, guys. This chapter has been done since Sunday, but I haven't managed to be both awake and and of school at the same time long enough to post it. I'm sick and therefore on NyQuil and therefore unconcious like, half my day. I'm gonna go die now.**

**SUPER SPECIAL VACCINATED THANK YOUS TO:**

**Flower power.u know u like it, OwOTunaFishAndPineapplezzOwO , assi, mebo1, April Marciano, Chuu112, Jasmine-angela, Maso-chan, Seithr-Kairy, SinisteRRRsAngel, YuujouKami, Inoue Orihime15, 7, TenraiTsukiyomi, devil190, pizzas are immortal, Bluosity, Sasuna123, moonlight phonex101, Dreamless-Sleep777, Mikkola, RosaLuna416, Tani Yoru, alexag98, vnienhuis, CeramicPizza, Eovin, HG59, KeiGinya, .exile, Pandawasmyballpen, kamikorosuXP, monamonalisa17, NotreDaaaaame, UltraCreepyKiwi, Saskue's-Killer112, Viviene, Bishi-Bishi, nandive, shanagi95, Hayate The Soul Reaper, InTheDarkestHowers, Juliedoo, KuroHi91, Vikky Plushie, Sgaapje, sync94, virusxD, Sharkdude5, Deer-Shifter, Rena Talmay, Otaku-neku, RandomCitizen, KafeiDetour, TsubakiHana, soul-madness, GoodbyeHello, Leahnor Lex J. Maxwell, Nucima, bluedot, terfa, Eggbert 3000, Ev3rL05t, Loraliell, Magicnightstar reader, Milley02, johahptw, alaxsandra, kenegi, Luna-Zeta, virkelighetsflukt, Nazo-san, Neko9406, xXxIRISxXx, Ahoshi-chan, UnluckyStar112, WhitestormX, soul-madness, HKTM, Jerrac, Lil' Miss G, bluedot, CsRB, RecordingDreams, Suzululu08, lumenaquas, and WingsOfFate.**

**This list is so big owo**

**Poll is still open guys. It's getting pretty close between Enma and Mukuro. I'll probably close it...update after next. Vote now, guys!**


	7. Hana

**(Age 5)**

I had only been in school for three days and I was already bored out of my mind.

I already _knew _everything they were teaching us. Well, if you could even call it teaching. Mostly we just drew pictures and wrote our names. The former was actually a little fun, because while my art skills were on the better side of mediocre coming from a teenager, they were downright impressive coming from a five-year-old and made me center of attention for a little while each day.

On the second day of school, our teacher, a peppy little rosette who called herself Aino-sensei, had us all decorate little paper nameplates that sat in front of our seats on the little wooden tables. Yamamoto was, predictably, covered in wobbly baseballs and misshapen blobs of color that I assumed were pieces of sushi. Sasagawa Kyoko's was full of cake and butterflies (which, considering her age, were surprisingly well-drawn). There was a boy near the front of the class (average height, dark brown hair, didn't play well with others) who had scribbled little frogs all over his nameplate and a girl who sat to my left (Suzu Ame, blue-black hair, part of the Yamamoto mini-fanclub) whose entire name was almost illegible under all the fluorescent pink hearts and disproportionate stick-figure kittens.

I wasn't exactly sure why I cared, but knowing never hurt.

Tsuna, very insecure of his drawing abilities (which really weren't any worse than frog-boy's), had kept it simple and drawn a stack of different colored squares with a face on the topmost one. A robot. I had also taken the liberty of drawing a little tuna on the back on his tag where only he could see it. He had returned the favor on my own.

When Aino-sensei had given us our nameplate, I was at a total loss of what to draw. I liked music, I could have drawn music notes…but then people would ask me to sing and my singing voice kind of sucked. I liked people-watching, but I wasn't sure how I would draw that. In the end I just took Tsuna's fish and ran with it. I colored mine a light orange (it brought out my eyes, which I honestly _did _like) and covered all the blank space with little Hibirds and tunas. Of course, to everyone else it just looked like a loved birds and fish, but I knew better.

…Although I liked to think that the Hibirds symbolized a love of cute as opposed to a love of Hibari. Now that we lived in the same universe, I was very, _very_ afraid of him. I was going to freaking _memorize _that stupid handbook as soon as we got it. No rule breaking for Tsunami, Tsunami liked to think she was smarter than that.

Crappy doodles and self-preservation instincts aside, school was seriously starting to melt my brain. You'd think after spending the better part of five years stuck in a house throwing balls at my little brother's head, I would have become infinitely more patient. It was sort of the opposite, really. I had been looking forward to getting out of the house for so long that I had built social interactions up on a sort of pedestal.

It was kind of like spending the summer by yourself and getting all excited for school, but once it actually started all you wanted to do was go back to break. In my case however, summer had been five years long and somewhat traumatizing.

There were a few bright spots, though. For one, I got to people-watch. I _loved _people-watching. If I could, I think I would just spend days at a time following people around and seeing what they were like. Iemitsu kept a pair of binoculars in Nana's closet and sometimes whenever she was busy cooking, I would steal them and use them to watch the people down the street through the window. It was ridiculously creepy and Tsuna never hesitated to tell me so, but they were just so…I don't know, _sparkly_. They were happy people, always running about.

There was also a girl with chocolate hair and big eyes who 'hahi!'d when startled that passed through with her portly father every now and then. Every time she walked by I considered going out and meeting her. Every time, I chickened out, put the binoculars away, and studiously ignored the window for the rest of the day.

But I'm getting off topic.

My favorite targets during school were, predictably, the ones I knew the most about.

First and foremost was Yamamoto Takeshi, partly because he was just so _cute _and partly because I could stare at him and not feel creepy since every other girl in the classroom was doing it too. It seemed that the Official Yamamoto Takeshi Fanclub that was mentioned so often in the series had started _very _early on. For now the attention was mostly innocent- my classmates were still at that age when boys where gross. There was something about his sparkly grin that drew just about everyone in, however, so they often grouped around him during recess.

The other person I watched came as something of a surprise. Before we begin, I need to get one thing out:

At the time, I did not like Sasagawa Kyoko. I did not like her _at all_. In my opinion, she was the closest thing to a Mary Sue that Katekyo Hitman Reborn had and she was just so _clueless_. Those weren't really good reasons to hate someone with the passion that I did and that fact only served to frustrate me more.

It wasn't that I was blind to her strong points. She really was a very nice girl. She rarely complained and when she did, it was totally justified. Still, there was just something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. Now that I actually had to see her on a daily basis, I was hell-bent on figuring it out so I could stop feeling bad for not liking her.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon shifting my gaze between Yamamoto, Kyoko, and my brother (who somehow managed to break six jumbo crayons, fall off the monkey bars, and give himself four different papercuts in the span of an hour and a half) while fending off the hordes of curious kindergartners that wanted me to draw them. I spent the first half of recess nursing Tsuna's skinned knees with the small bottle of spray-on disinfectant and the bandaids I kept on my person at all times (if you had to look out for someone as accident-prone as Tsuna, you would too), but for the second half I retreated to top of the slide. I stuck my stubby little legs through the bars that were supposed to keep kids from falling to their deaths and tried to ignore the shrieks of children behind me sliding down the long tube.

Loud kids were so _annoying_.

My radioactive eyes stared hard at the small girl sitting at one of the benches, drawing spirals in the dirt. Kyoko was a far cry from the ridiculously popular girly-girl she would become in the next few years, and I found myself sort of liking that. Her hands and knees were streaked with dirt and she had a frown of concentration on her face as her chubby fingers traced patterns into the dust.

I took a moment to survey my other targets. Yamamoto had his giant baseball card collection out again and Tsuna was sitting in the sandbox with another boy who seemed to be studiously ignoring him with his nose in the air. I made a mental note to hunt him down, glare at him whenever possible, and maybe spill juice in his shoes. Accidentally, of course. By the time I turned back to Kyoko, she had already abandoned her spirals in favor of chasing a ladybug in circles.

She was…weird. Not what I expected. There wasn't a giant fanclub, people weren't following her around, and she wasn't doing that close-eyed smile thing. The only people who could pull that off and not look like they were trying too hard were Tsuna and Yamamoto.

"You know, watching people is kind of creepy." A high-pitched voice drawled, sounding thoroughly unimpressed. My head snapped around so fast that I hit myself in the face with my hair and had to take an embarrassing moment to brush it out of my mouth. To her credit, the girl barely even jumped at my radioactive peepers and instead leaned in to get a closer look, her short black hair swinging forward to come dangerously close to smacking me in the face.

"Um." I said eloquently, pressing back against the steel playground bars in an effort to put some distance between our faces. I wasn't big on physical contact with strangers. The girl seemed to notice my discomfort and backed off, a single eyebrow raised. It said a lot about her that she was five years old and able to do an eyebrow lift. I was technically in my twenties (when the hell had _that_ happened)and _still _hadn't pulled that off.

"So why are you staring at that girl?" The black-haired girl asked, eyes calculating. This kid was…different from the other kids I'd met so far. She seemed smarter, more aware. Quieter, thank god. To the average child, I'm sure she must have come off as weird or even intimidating, but to me it was a much-needed break from all the mindless blather that was going on around me.

"…She's by herself, but she doesn't look lonely at all." It wasn't a total lie. Kyoko was smiling brightly while she scampered after the insect, not at all bothered by how she was the one of the only people not playing with a group. The girl standing above me followed my gaze to the small redhead and a few moments passed.

The thing that got to me was how completely comfortable I was with the silence. Back in my old home, silences with strangers were among some of my most hated things. I either wanted them to start a conversation or go away, and thanks to my complete lack of social skills it was usually the latter. With this little girl, however, I didn't feel the need to say something or shuffle awkwardly or _anything_.

Evidently, she felt the same way. After a few more seconds she sat down next to me and straddled the safety bars, staring at me curiously out of the corner of her eye.

"You-"

"You're a lot different than the other girls around here." I observed, brushing my bangs out of my eyes so I could get a better look at her. Her chocolate eyes narrowed at the interruption, but she didn't otherwise protest. I was really starting to like this girl.

"You're not so normal yourself. You don't _seem _like you're a stupid monkey…" This gave me pause.

Stupid monkey?

I had definitely heard that somewhere before.

"I'm Sawada Tsunami. What's your name?" The girl gave me a long once-over. Deeming me worthy of some unspoken standard she had, she cracked the first genuine smile I'd seen her give so far.

"Kurokawa Hana. Wanna be friends?"

My earth-shattering cry of '_FUCK YES'_ got caught in my throat at the last second and was replaced by something a little more appropriate.

"...Sure, why not."

* * *

Tsuna and Hana's first meeting went a lot better than I'd thought it would.

For one thing, I was totally expecting him to do something completely retarded like fall on top of her and break her ribs. If that didn't happen, I was almost positive that Hana would take one look at him, label him 'hopelessly no-good', and begin shunning him for the rest of forever.

To my unending relief, none of the above happened. I actually _liked_ Hana. If she had started bullying my baby brother, though, I probably would have had to have knocked her teeth out. That would have been _great _for my reputation, by the way. I would forever be known as Sawada Tsunami, The Girl Who Sucker Punched A Five Year Old.

Um, no thank you.

After recess was over, my new-found friend and I went back into the classroom, discussing the important philosophies and personal interests that formed the basis of every friendship.

"So what's your favorite color?"

"Um, black, I think. Or maybe white. Or purple?"

"_You think?_ What kind of girl doesn't know their own favorite color?"

"The 'me' kind, obviously. Maybe I just like all colors equally. What about you?"

"Green."

Yup. _Philosophy._

"So who was that kid you were with earlier today? Is he your brother?" Hana asked as we walked into the classroom. I faltered in my steps for a moment.

_Oh shit._

For a main character, Tsuna was incredibly easy to forget about sometimes. I had stopped watching him when Hana approached me- was he still okay? It was only the first day of school, _no way _had he gotten jumped already. That would just be ridiculously unlucky.

…And 'ridiculously unlucky' pretty much defined Tsuna to a 'T'.

"Yeah, he's my younger twin brother." I explained quickly, already clambering on chairs to see if I could catch a glimpse of his fluffy brown afro. "I should probably go find- nevermind. Tsuna!" I called, waving my arms so frantically that I almost fell off the chair. The fluffy head that was just beginning to come in the doorway jumped and looked around for the source of the calling. "Over here!"

"N-Nami-nee!" He squeaked and stumbled through the small crowd until he was at the foot of my desk, looking a little flustered and sandy but otherwise unharmed. I hopped off the desk and landed squarely in between a very unimpressed Hana and my uber cute little brother who was trying to scrape the sand of his knees with only some success.

"Tsuna, meet Kurokawa Hana. We're friends now. Kurokawa-chan, this is my younger brother, Tsuna." They exchanged quick bows before taking a moment to size each other up. As I waited with baited breath for Tsuna to do something…well, _Tsuna-like_ (like squeak and run away or lose his balance or get hit in the head with a block and then somehow managed to take out half the class because that was just how his luck _worked _and _oh god this wasn't going to end well_), my baby brother surprised me by _not _freaking way the hell out at Hana's scrutinizing glare. Instead, he gave a nervous, tentative, completely wimpy but oh-my-lanta-so-goddamn-_cute_ smile that involved that little head tilt thing he did when he was unsure of something and it just made the whole picture that much more _adorable _and _guh_.

I should probably stop underestimating his ability to function in society without accidentally like, killing someone when I myself couldn't even make in twenty minutes without wanting to glomp him.

"H-hello, Kurokawa-san." He stuttered and I ruffled his hair fondly. '_Do you see this Hana? Do you see this cute? Love him, Hana. LOVE HIM._'

"…Hi." Hana said flatly. I deflated a little. 'Hi'? How was she so unaffected by his cuteness? She should be like…squealing or drooling or _something_.

It occurred to me that maybe I just had a brother-complex and Tsuna's ultra-cute, soul-melting smiles only really affected me.

…_Nah_.

"Kurokawa-chan caught me people-watching. How did recess go?"

He gave me a withering look.

"Haha, you're right. I already know." Tsuna was very well aware of my creeping habits, seeing as how I usually practiced on him. Hana, however, was a little more surprised.

"So you stalk people often, then?" Her eyebrows were doing that thing again and I looked away, a little embarrassed. When she put it like _that…_

"…I like knowing what's going on. Hey, come on, we should probably sit down." Hana, Tsuna, and I took our seats. As they were in alphabetical order by last name, Tsuna and I sat next to each other. Directly in front of us was one Sasagawa Kyoko, while Hana was a ways up, closer to the blackboard. Yamamoto (who was _already _asleep, geez) was almost in the back corner, much to his budding fanbase's chagrin. They couldn't stare at him if he was behind them.

Upon sitting down, Hana immediately pulled a book out from under her desk. It wasn't terribly big and she was making pretty slow progress, but there didn't seem to be any pictures and that fact that she was _reading _instead of socializing like the other girls really said something about her. I _knew_ I liked her for a reason.

"…I don't think Kurokawa-san likes me very much," Tsuna sulked, following my gaze.

"What makes you say that?" He shifted, a little uncomfortable under my probing stare.

"I dunno. It's just a feeling I get." Hyper Intuition, maybe? I honestly hoped not. My moral code (_brother complex_) didn't allow me to be friends with anyone who didn't like my brother. That sucked, because I legitimately liked Hana.

"She just doesn't know you well enough yet, Tuna-fish," I reassured. At the front of the classroom, Aino-sensei rand the small bell on her desk to signal the start of class. Clamming up, both Tsuna and I turned to face her to begin another four hours or so of crushing boredom.

* * *

The first time I talked to Yamamoto Takeshi was...not really how I envisioned it going. Considering how I had no plans to even associate with him until after his freaking _suicide attempt _(assuming that even happened- was I in the anime or the manga?), this may have been a good thing.

It was almost the end of the school day and the teacher had decided to leave us to our own devices in hopes that we would make friends with each other. Naturally, I had rejected social hour in favor of doodling mindlessly. Hana hovered next to me, the book in her hands. She wasn't reading it though- instead she chose to pick up the conversation we had started earlier. Tsuna sat next to me, silently watching me draw. I felt a little bad about leaving him out, but he seemed happier just watching us quietly. I think Hana intimidated him a little.

"So, what're you reading?" I asked, glancing up from the slightly lopsided lotus I was trying to shade.

"It's a collection of short stories. They all teach some dumb moral or whatever, but the actual stories themselves are pretty good." I blinked and abandoned my lotus in favor of staring at her incredulously.

..._Dude_.

There were kids in this class who couldn't even read their own _names_ yet.

It was beginning to dawn on me that there was a lot more to Kurokawa Hana than I had originally thought. She was _smart_. The girls in the corner were giggling about their new dolls and she was sitting here casually discussing her giant book like it was totally normal reading material for a kindergartner.

"...Kurokawa-chan, where did you-?"

"Ne, Tsunami-san!" A hand clapped down on my shoulder and I actually _flinched_.

"_Who are you and why are you touching me._" And using my first name, that too, but seriously dude _get your hands off me_. That theory about an aversion to physical contact from people who weren't Tsuna was looking more and more accurate every day. That...was probably extremely unhealthy.

"W-o-w, that's a cool flower! I hate to stop you and all, but can I borrow your pencil for a second? I broke mine on accident, haha!"

It was the 'haha' that clued me in. I turned around almost robotically, suddenly not as afraid and a million times more terrified of the hand on my shoulder all at the same time.

Yamamoto Takeshi as beaming at me (Jesus, was he _sparkling_?), his small male fanclub only a few feet away looking curiously at my lotus and then at my face and then my lotus and then back to my eyes. I covered my drawing with my arm and consciously stopped myself from gaping.  
Instead of saying something, saying _anything _(_'Hey Yamamoto, of course you can borrow my pencil. Thank you for not staring at my eyes like they're going to jump out of my skull and eat your soul. Could you not use my first name? It makes me go into fangirl attacks and besides, "Tsunami" sounds weird anyways. You can just call me Nami like everyone else- besides Kurokawa-chan- if you really don't want to use my first name and oh my god you're so freaking chibi cute it hurts to look at you. Stop _sparkling_, damn you'_) I just handed over my mechanical pencil and hoped I wasn't blushing or like, squealing or something embarrassing like that.

I was suddenly very acutely aware of how I was probably the only kindergartner in the whole freaking prefecture who carried extra mechanical pencils around. How much more nerdy could a five-year-old get? I really, really hoped he didn't notice.

"Thanks! I'll give it back in a minute, okay?"

"You, um," My voice was already starting to falter. Stupid nerves, go away. I cleared my throat and tried again. "You can keep it."

Smiles that big should be _illegal_.

"Haha, thanks Tsunami-san!" As he turned back to his fanboys brandishing the pencil like a baseball bat ("Like I was saying, you have to go all whoosh whoosh and when the ball comes it has to be all CRACK bang boooooom-" This kid had issues, seriously) I thought to myself that maybe all those psychopathic screaming groupies he had in Middle School were on to something.

Next to me, Hana narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"You're not turning into a fangirl, are you?"

"Pfft, of course not."

I was totally already there.

* * *

Later that night while Tsuna was getting ready for bed, Nana approached me with a white envelope in hand.

"Nami-chan, that nice girl you met at Kokuyo Land sent another letter!"

"Did you read it?" I immediately demanded, alarmed. M.M. didn't exactly have much of a mental-to-verbal filter when it came to writing letters (...or speaking, really) and I got the feeling that Nana might have a conniption if she caught wind of the harsh and sometimes downright bizarre insults we hurled at each other.

"Of course not, Nami-chan. I think this entire long-distance friendship you two have is absolutely adorable! Ooh, you should ask her when she's coming back to Japan. We could have a party!" She squealed.

...Or she might think it was sweet. I don't know, this woman was kind of confusing like that. And no to the whole party thing, too. I liked M.M. exactly where she was: an ocean away from me and my highly impressionable fragile little brother.

...Although it really was nice to have someone I vent all of my pent up aggression on without fear of repercussions. The first few letters we had exchanged were basically lists of all the mean names we could think of that applied to the other. It was only when we ran out of material (and M.M.'s mom started wondering if I actually existed or if I was just an excuse for her daughter to practice her insults in Japanese) that we started discussing our daily lives.

Surprisingly enough, M.M. was actually pretty normal for a rich genius french kid. I mean, her mom was in the fashion industry (shocker) and her father was constantly away on business, sort of like mine. I wasn't sure if, like Iemitsu, M.M.'s father's definition of 'business' was really synonymous with 'highly illegal mafia-type dealings'. I didn't ask, because really. How do you ask a six year old if her dad is in the mafia? You _don't_.

I took the envelope from Nana's hand and grabbed a piece of paper of my own. Fishing my mechanical pencil out of the pocket of my dress (I was going to have to remind myself to convince Nana that I would look just as cute in _pants_ as I would in frilly little deathtraps like this) I laid it down next to my blank sheet and ripped the envelope open with absolutely no grace whatsoever.

* * *

_Dear Traffic Cone,_

_Your letters are getting stupider every week. Why would I care about any of that crap? Dogs are gross. You should just shoot it or something. It'd be its own fault for wandering in your yard so often. Ugh, I really hate mutts._

_Not that it's really any of your business, but my mom wants me to start an instrument. You mentioned a while back that you play the pipe or harmonica or some kiddy thing like that. Mom wants me to do the piano, but like _everyone_ plays piano and its boring. If I don't make a choice by next month or whatever, I'm totally grounded. If I'm grounded, I can't send letters and _you_ can't get my awesome advice anymore. So, instruments. Name them._

_Remembering your face makes me wanna puke,_

_M.M._

* * *

_...Well _then. I picked up my pencil and began to write as neatly as I could.

* * *

_Dear Leprechaun,_

_First of all, 'stupider' isn't even a word, moron. And you can't just go around _shooting people's dogs_, you idiot. That's how people get arrested._

_God forbid I lose contact with _you_. I just don't know what I'd do, really. Oh wait, yes I do, _celebrate_. And I play the _xylophone_, ginger. Its a perfectly awesome instrument to play. For me. You'd probably poke your eye out with a mallet if you tried, so don't. You're ugly enough without an eyepatch. Seriously though, try the clarinet. I hear its pretty hard to learn though, so you might not be good enough to do it._

'Not that it's any of your business'_, but I officially started school a few days ago. It's incredibly boring. The people there suck pretty hard, too. Well, except for this one girl, she's okay. She's smart, you'd hate her. And then there's this other really cute guy (cute like my brother, not cute like I like him) that like, vomits rainbows and sparkles. You'd hate him too._

_And I never ask you for advice, you orangutan. You just give it whether its wanted or not._

_I hope you get hit by a moving truck,_

_Tsunami_

* * *

__I folded the letter and left it on the counter top for Nana to send and hopefully not read. As I climbed the stairs to the room I shared with Tsuna to get ready for bed, I had to wonder.

I was living with a future pimp-slash-mafia-boss and was BFFL pen-pals with a compulsive shopper who would eventually grow up, own a microwave clarinet, and try to seduce a psycho-neurotic serial killing pineapple for the rest of her natural life. I had given my pencil to a secretly-homicidal baseball nut with a learning curve sharper than his magic sword and my house was going to be invaded by two five year olds carrying high-powered assualt weapons and another one that freaking _exploded_ within less than a decade. My father killed people for a living and my mother had no idea. I was doomed to spend the rest of my education looking over my shoulder and running away screaming from an angry teenager with tonfas, a blood fetish, and a pet bird that sang the school anthem.

_Why was this my life._

* * *

**A/N: Because it brings me great joy~**

**SO GUYS. Lets talk about the poll results. Y'all are incredibly indecisive- I swear the winner is changing like every three hours. For a few glorious hours, Enma and Mukuro were tied. Then Yamamoto came out of nowhere and kicked their collective asses. So: **

**Yamamoto:19**

**Enma: 18**

**Mukuro: 18 **

**Hibari: 14**

**Byakuran: 10**

**Shoichi: 9**

**I'm only taking the top six through to the next poll. I'll take it down Sunday, November 11, so vote now!**

**GIANT MEGA HOLY-CRAP-THERE-ARE-3,000-VIEWS THANKS TO:**

**Flower power.u know u like it, OwOTunaFishAndPineapplezzOwO , assi, mebo1, April Marciano, Chuu112, Jasmine-angela, Maso-chan, Seithr-Kairy, SinisteRRRsAngel, YuujouKami, Inoue Orihime15, 7, TenraiTsukiyomi, devil190, pizzas are immortal, Bluosity, Sasuna123, moonlight phonex101, Dreamless-Sleep777, Mikkola, RosaLuna416, Tani Yoru, alexag98, vnienhuis, CeramicPizza, Eovin, HG59, KeiGinya, .exile, Pandawasmyballpen, kamikorosuXP, monamonalisa17, NotreDaaaaame, UltraCreepyKiwi, Saskue's-Killer112, Viviene, Bishi-Bishi, nandive, shanagi95, Hayate The Soul Reaper, InTheDarkestHowers, Juliedoo, KuroHi91, Vikky Plushie, Sgaapje, sync94, virusxD, Sharkdude5, Deer-Shifter, Rena Talmay, Otaku-neku, RandomCitizen, KafeiDetour, TsubakiHana, soul-madness, GoodbyeHello, Leahnor Lex J. Maxwell, Nucima, bluedot, terfa, Eggbert 3000, Ev3rL05t, Loraliell, Magicnightstar reader, Milley02, johahptw, alaxsandra, kenegi, Luna-Zeta, virkelighetsflukt, Nazo-san, Neko9406, xXxIRISxXx, Ahoshi-chan, UnluckyStar112, WhitestormX, soul-madness, HKTM, Jerrac, Lil' Miss G, bluedot, CsRB, RecordingDreams, Suzululu08, lumenaquas, WingsOfFate, babyuknowme13, Kine X, Mel, The White Camellia, crazyblondefanfictionlover10 1, Persefone88, Lamashu, akuma-chan25300, RoaringZekClaws, LadiiWhisper, Bubbles227, Arithra, , Ixiene, bookimp, Caramel27, and Scarlet-dragon1o1.**

**SUPER SIZED I'M-A-TERRIBLE-PERSON THANK YOUS/SORRYS TO:**

** .Current and Insanity-Red. I didn't even think to see last week if anyone had added this to a C2 and you both _did_. Words cannot even _explain _my excitement. I'm so sorry you guys weren't on last week's list, Evi is stupid =.="  
**

**Due to _insanely_ popular demand, you guys get chibi!Enma next chapter. No, I don't know how. I'll make it work somehow.**


	8. Lost and Found

**(Age 6)**

Some parents lose their kids in supermarkets. Some parents lose their kids in theme parks. I guess I should be grateful that mine lost me in front of a chocolate shop.

It was the week before Tsuna and I had to go off for first grade. Nana, noticing how we were beginning to outgrow all of our clothes, decided to take us out clothes shopping at the local strip mall. I, for one, was thankful. This was yet another chance for me to convince my mother to buy me something other than dresses before I reached the age where school uniforms were mandatory. I was _not _a dress person, and the frilly orange monstrosities she kept buying me were getting pretty old.

We spent the first hour or so in and out of various stores. Tsuna was racking up quite the collection of orange shirts and hoodies. When asked about his color palette, he just pouted and said he liked orange. No more questions were asked because _guh_. This kid was too cute for his own good. Meanwhile, Nana and I reached a compromise: she would pick out _one _dress for me (a white sundress that was actually somewhat tolerable) and I would get to pick out the rest. I got so many pairs of pants it wasn't even funny.

All in all, I was pretty damn excited.

Somewhere between buying me a pack of assorted headbands with bows ("I hope you never grow out of loving these, Nami-chan! They're so _cute!_") and the third cookbook that day, Nana decided it was time to do some 'light' window shopping.

That's where things went a little screwy.

It started out great, really. Tsuna and I were being good kids and sticking close to Momma. We didn't take any candy from strangers, we didn't wander off into the crowd of people (and _wow_ was it a crowd), and we didn't steal anything.

And then I saw it.

Let me take a minute here to explain something to you about Japan. All those sweet, sugary, melt-in-your-mouth breakfast foods like French toast and waffles and shit? Replace them with rice and a protein of your choice. That delicious lunch of pizza and maybe, like, potato chips and other greasy, fattening things like that? Aha, _no. _Rice, protein of your choice. Granted, since I was living with Sawada Nana of all people that protein was freaking _delicious_, but there's only so much rice and fish an ex-westerner can take.

So maybe I got a_ little_ overexcited when we passed the chocolate shop. Seriously though, that cake was bigger than I was and, more importantly, _it was chocolate._

Okay, so maybe I was a sweets-loving greasy American at heart. Whoop-de-doo. I died a virgin, tripping over a cat, I'm allowed to be unhealthy sometimes.

…Or at least I _should _have been, but _no._ Japan had to be all _rice _and shit. I was going through sugar withdrawls and the giant cake in that window was totally my cure. I pressed a little closer to the glass, willing that maybe, by some miracle of science or anime logic or _whatever_ that I would be absorbed through the window via osmosis into straight into that warm, gooey slice of chocolate heaven.

That was about the time I noticed that the rest of my family was no longer behind me. I whirled around so fast that my hair got stuck in my mouth.

…Oh shit.

Oh _shit._

I freaked.

'_Okay, Tsunami, think. You've been in this situation before, remember? In your old life, yeah. Your mom forgot at the supermarket. What did you do?'_

…I screamed and cried because I was four, scared, and possibly being creeped on by the bearded man in the checkout line.

'…_Okay, what _should _you have done?_'

"Stay where I am, don't go out of public view, beware of stranger danger." I breathed, backing up until my back hit the cool window glass. This was totally the cake's fault. Stupid cake, being so distracting. Why did it have to be so damn chocolatey? Why not, like, _nut _cake or something gross and nasty like that?

The seconds ticked by. Surely Nana or Tsuna would have noticed I was gone by now? Maybe that didn't know where they had left me. I should probably go find them or something-

"_Stay where you are, _do _not _go out of public view, and beware of _stranger danger_." I repeated. I was giving up cake forever after this. If it hadn't looked so damn _good_ I would _not_ be in this situation. Of all the stupid, ridiculous things to go crazy over, I just _had_ to pick the one that was going to end up giving me diabetes. Stupid.

As I examined my orange glare in the reflection of the glass, I noted that I might maybe have some panic management issues. If this kept going on, I was going to start punching people whenever I got scared. Very unhealthy.

On another note, standing here alone was starting to feel very awkward.

To distract myself from the growing urge to sit down or run around or _something_, I turned to my usual hobby- people-watching. Being as this was a public shopping center, there were certainly some interesting people to watch. That much was true no matter where in the world you were.

There was this one couple across the street going through quite the ostentatious breakup ('Tetsuya' and 'Ayame' if the names being screamed were anything to go by). She had caught him with lipstick smears on his collar that were so violently pink I could see them from across the street. He was trying (and failing _miserably_) to convince her that no, he wasn't cheating on her, the lipstick had come from _her_ and just hadn't come off in the washing machine.

One look at her short dyed hair and her rather deadly-looking spiked biker boots and even _I _could tell that she'd never even been within three feet of a shade that pink. I silently wished her the best of luck with her asshole boyfriend and moved on.

Next up was a family of bluenettes on my side of the street that kept wandering back and forth between the video game store and the accessory shop. The teenaged son (who, now that I looked, was actually kinda cute- but that was a billion different kinds of creepy since no matter how you looked at it the age gap between us was _massive_) had a cellphone glued to his hand. I guessed that he was texting his girlfriend. No guys _I_ knew texted each other that much while blushing that violently. He was trying and failing to covertly ask his mother what kind of jewelry girls liked and kept leading the family back and forth by the store. So…he wanted to get his girlfriend a gift without actually letting his family know he had one? Or maybe it was just a girl he was _crushing_ on. That would certainly explain the secrecy.

…Why did I _care?_

I scanned the crows for Nana and Tsuna again, shifting nervously form foot to foot. I really hoped no one kidnapped me. That would seriously suck. No, Nami, don't think about that. Look for Momma and Tsuna- why weren't they here yet, those _fuc_- and put a lid on the unwarranted rage, it's not healthy.

I got up on my tiptoes and tried to look for a familiar shade of honey brown. Greasy black, blue, green, black, flat brown, black, red, mousy gray-

Wait, red? My inner fangirl promptly threw herself out of her nap.

'_RED, MAYBE IT'S SHOICHI-TAN!'_

Mental issues. I had them.

I leaned forward, trying to find the short redheaded figure again. It occurred to me that maybe this whole 'stalking equals love' thing I had going on for Shoichi was all sorts of unhealthy (and mildly illegal) and he probably didn't even _remember_ me, but my inner fangirl was very insistent that she _did not give a shit. _Cute was cute, and Shoichi was on a level of _adorable_ only attainable by wimpy, helpless little kids like Tsuna and-

-I sounded like such a _creeper_.

…Inner Fangirl still didn't give a shit.

I needed therapy, seriously. World-hopping must have screwed with my brain more than I'd thought. Or maybe it was all the adrenaline from the massive mental breakdown I was trying to distract myself from- oh look, _red_.

The source of the flaming red hair was not, in fact, Irie Shoichi, much to my disappointment. It was a blubbering little kid with shorter hair, just standing in the middle of the street with eyes that were wet and glassy but not quite teary. The crowd just moved on past him, barely giving him a second glance. Come to think of it, I hadn't been approached by a single concerned adult yet. I felt like I had read something in a psychology book about this once, like how people were less likely to help someone if there were other people around because-

But that wasn't important.

As I watched, the redhead (who was actually kinda sorta adorable, now that I looked) slowly stumbled backwards, turning in circles almost frantically. He was bounced around like a pinball by the rush of the people until he eventually found himself ejected from the crowd, now on my side of the street. He was only two or three shops down and he was looking around with this giant doe-eyed stare that was practically _begging _some random pedophile to pluck him up and cart him off.

…Well, safety in numbers.

Abandoning my post by the cake shop (I was only moving a few feet, what was the harm?), I slowly walked over to the panicking redhead, trying not to scare him.

"…Are you lost, too?"

"Augh!"

Needless to say, I failed.

I backed off quickly, my hands raised in surrender. I felt like I was dealing with a cornered animal. One wrong move and he might-

The boy looked at the ground with watery eyes and nodded quietly.

-make my heart explode with _rainbows _and _guh._

"…S-So what's your name?" I cleared my throat to banish the urge to squee. We retreated to the safety of the brick wall, a good three or four feet away from the thick of the crowd. The boy refused to look up and meet my eyes, preferring instead to count the cracks in the concrete or something. I was kind of thankful for that, actually. Scaring him off now with my bright orange eyes would be very counterproductive.

"…'M not s'pposed to talk to strangers…" He mumbled, tugging at the sleeves of his slightly oversized gray hoodie nervously. I pouted and leaned over to try to get a good look at his face. I hoped he was crying. I couldn't handle crying people who weren't Tsuna, and even then it was kind of a hit or miss thing.

"Well, my name is Tsunami. You can call me Nami though, kay? 'Tsunami' isn't a very good name." Silence. "See, now you know my name. We're not strangers anymore!"

…Said every pedophile ever before reaching over and snatching away their sniveling child of choice. Being a grown fangirl in a child's body was so very inconvenient for my moral compass. I couldn't even squeal normally without feeling like some crotchety old creeper.

The cutie slowly raised his head to look me in the eyes and _wow,_ those were some cool pupils. They were all…compass-shaped. How did that happen? Anime genetics were weird. I was looking forward to learning Biology so I could maybe figure out how I had ended up with eyes this orange when _neither _of my parents had them. No way did I inherit Giotto's eyes. But…that would be really awesome if I did. How freaking lucky was I, _I got to be Giotto's great-great-great-times-whatever granddaughter._

…Which made the massive crush I and every other fangirl had on him seem incredibly creepy. Again with the moral compass thing.

…But that was off subject.

While I was busy marveling the wonders of anime genetics, the redhead was openly staring at my own. They must have been glowing again…or maybe their offensively orange shade had actually mange to, well, offend someone.

"…You have weird eyes, too." My smile twitched. Someone needed to teach this kid that there were some things you just weren't supposed to tell a woman. Like that her eyes were weird. Her eyes that she inherited from her unfairly attractive undead ancestor. But it was okay, because the redhead was cute.

"I guess I do, huh? I don't really think yours are that weird, though. Its kinda cute- _I mean cool_." _Filter_, Tsunami. Just because _you _think his red eyes are adorable and heart-meltingly sad doesn't mean you have to share that with the world.

"…" The kid flushed and looked back down at his feet. _Wow, _great going there Nami, not even two minutes in and you've already scared him into silence. He probably thinks you're some sort of creeper- which you _are. _

Seriously, I didn't even know why I opened my mouth anymore.

We sat in silence (miserable, awkward, I-never-get-this-with-Hana-or-Tsuna-I-miss-them-already silence) as the people continued walking by. Where were his parents? ...Where were _my _parents?

"Um-"

"Enma." We said at the same time.

"You go first."

"E-Enma. My name. Um, Kozato…Enma…" His voice trailed off into mumbles, but it didn't matter because I had _heard him._

"H-HI, Enma-sa…Enma-san..!"

…

My brain exploded.

'_Hi, Enma-san'_?!

More like '_Holy shit_, Enma, you live in _Shimon. What the fuck are you doing here?!' _Shimon was like an hour away, I looked it up! How the hell did he end up in Namimori?

…Well, there were a lot of reasons why he could be here, but I mean…shit, what were the _odds_ of me running into him?! And how had I not _realized?! _It wasn't like there were many people running around with pupils like his. I was a failure as a fangirl, honestly.

Enma (who, let me reiterate, was incredibly cute with his pouting and his pupils and _guh_) remained oblivious to me mental breakdown and continued alternating his gaze between the ground and the crowd. Before I could do something creepy like glomp or kidnap him (this train of thought seemed oddly familiar), Enma was _gone_.

Let me repeat that.

He freaking _disappeared._

At first I thought he had just moved around me to look in the window of a shop or something. A quick glance around proved that no, he was actually legitimately gone.

…What the _hell, _man. I took my eyes off him for like a _second._ Where could he have gone?!

Holy crap, what if he'd been kidnapped?!

"E-Enma-san?!" I squeaked, looking in every which direction. Oh shit. Oh _shit._ Kozato Enma was _not allowed_ to get kidnapped. If I had to wake up tomorrow to see his face on a fucking milk carton I was going to _kill myself _and then kill _him. In that fucking order_, too, because logic was retarded and useless when you were freaking way the fuck out and cursing way too much because you couldn't be assed to turn on your language filter and _where the fu-_

A flash of red,

"Enma-…san?"

Well, I had been partially right- Enma's painfully adorable pouting face _had_ managed to get him kidnapped…by a little girl. She couldn't have been more than three at the very most and had burgundy hair only a few shades darker than Enma's own. There was a cute little circle hairpin keeping her bangs out of her eyes, which were just as watery as Enma's.

"Nii-tan! Found Nii-tan!" She squealed, tugging him deeper into the crows towards a rather frantic looking couple. The father (Kozato Makoto, holy shit, _this was Kozato Makoto_) scooped him up like he weighed nothing and swung him in a circle. The mother stuck close, looking Enma over for scrapes or bruises while the little girl (_Kozato Mami_) clung to her father's leg.

All in all, it was the picture of a perfect family.

For some reason, it didn't make me feel as warm and fuzzy as it should have. As I watched a giggling Enma be fussed over like a newborn, the analytical half of my brain was working overtime.

The Flood of Blood Incident. Twelve of Iemitsu's men (my _father_, twelve of _my father's _men) were brutally murdered and then crammed into a single elevator. At the scene of the crime, a gun belonging to Kozato Makoto was recovered. Not even a week after (or had it been a month? A _day?_) the Kozato residence had been raided. There was only one survivor.

_'Eight years before,' _my brain supplied. '_It happened eight years before the Shimon Arc.'_

When was the Shimon Arc?

'_You'll be fourteen.'_

So…eight years from now.

…The Shimon Arc was eight years from _now_.

…I was going to be _sick_.

I had to say something. I had to- I had to warn them or help them or _something. _How do you tell a family that they're going to die within a year? Within a month? Within a _week_? Would they even believe me? Of course not, why would they? I was _six_.

…Was there any harm in trying, though?

_Yes. _

Well, no.

But _yes_.

…I didn't know.

As I struggled with myself, Enma's head popped over his father's shoulder and his chubby little finger reached up to point at me. He mumbled something to his parents and they turned around, meeting my eyes.

Maybe the benefits outweighed the risks for once.

…Maybe they _didn't._

The Kozato family made their way closer to me and I met them at the edge of the bustling crowd ('_constantly moving, moving, why couldn't I have just kept moving, too?'_) My hands were shaking. Hell, _I _was shaking.

"Hello, Hime-chan," Enma's mother began, crouching down to my level. What was it with adults and calling me princess all the time? I wasn't a princess, I wasn't even a peasant, I was a filthy little coward who couldn't even work up the balls to tell them- to say-

_Focus._

"I'm Enma-kun's mother. Do you need help finding your parents?"

I shook my head so fast it actually hurt. There was a little voice in the back of my head _screaming_ at me to run, run, _run away_ because introducing Enma's family to my own so soon was such a bad idea it was nauseating. I wasn't sure about Mrs. Kozato, but I was almost positive that Makoto would recognize the name Sawada. He could make the connection and then…

And _then_.

"Nee-tan! Nee-tan's name?" Mami demanded, poking her head out from behind her father's leg. I gave her a shaky smile. _'Stop stalling, Tsunami._'

"I'm S-Saw-" Shit, shit, shit, _rewind_- "Um, Tsunami. I…I, um, I mean- you-"

Jesus muffins, woman, _spit it out._

"Kozato-san, you-" I choked out. Too quietly, it seemed, because Makoto just spoke over me as though I hadn't even opened my mouth.

"Are you sure you don't need help, Tsunami-chan? I just don't feel comfortable leaving a girl your age out here by herself."

"N-No sir, I'm…fine. I'm great."

Haha, yeah. Fine. Who the hell was I kidding.

I couldn't do this.

I _couldn't._

He was going to wonder how I knew what I knew. He was just an art dealer, sure, but he was an art dealer who was going to be under investigation by the _mafia_-

What if he already was? What if they were _here_, right now, _watching him _and _seeing me_ and _wondering? _What if…what if they found me out?

And that's when the _real _panic attack hit.

_Stupid,_ I was so _stupid._ Why didn't I run when I had the chance? Why was I still here?! He was on to me, _they _were on to me, they knew I wasn't _normal_, they were going to lock me up or shoot me or sell me to the fucking _mafia scientists_ because the Estraneo were still around, weren't they? Oh fuck, they _were_. Shit, shit, _shit_. I was screwed. I was so beyond screwed. God, why did Enma have to be so cute and why did I have to be so _blind,_ I should have run the moment I saw his eyes. They were being tailed by the _mafia _and not the nice friendly _Tsuna_ type mafia, but the mean angry _Iemitsu_ type mafia and that was so much worse.

I was _stupid, _how was it possible for someone as stupid as me to still be alive? Well, ha, it didn't matter. It wasn't going to be a _problem_ anymore because I was so far beyond fucking _retarded _that I was about to get chased down by Mafiosi and _shot and sold and-_

"Tsunami-chan, might I ask what your parent's names are? If we run into them, maybe we can-?"

Oh no you may fucking _not._

"Bye, Enma-san!" And I _bolted. _I didn't know where I was going, all I knew was that I had to get out out _out_ before I said something, said _anything _else that would make me a bigger target.

What the fuck had happened to my strict policy of 'mind your own goddamn business'?! What had happened to 'stranger danger'?! Because _that_ had definitely been stranger danger. It was _still _stranger danger. I could feel eyes on my back and just _knew _that they were coming, that they had seen something or heard something and had figured something out and they were _coming _for me-

'_You haven't done anything incriminating yet,_' the little analytical part of my brain reasoned. The larger panicking half promptly wrapped it up and threw it in a closet because _seriously, what did _it_ know_-

It was only when I crashed headfirst into a warm body ("Nami-chan! There you are, Momma's been looking _everywhere_,") and felt familiar arms wrap around me, _Momma's arms_ and, that I realized I was shaking and crying rather hysterically. I sucked in a deep breath, trying in vain to _stop panicking _because panicking meant hyperventilating and hyperventilating meant passing out in the middle of the street and that was _bad_.

I buried my face in my mother's stomach and just tried to _breathe_. In for five, out for five. In, out, in, out. I could feel Tsuna latching onto my arm and tugging to get my attention and Momma trying to ask me what had happened, but I ignored them both in favor of _not passing out_.

In for five.

Out for five.

"…Momma?" I asked, my voice smaller and shakier than I ever remembered it being.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Can we go home now?"

She said yes.

* * *

It took me nearly an hour to finally come out of my panic-shell and make something up that would convince Momma that _no_, I hadn't been kidnapped or assaulted or felt up by dirty old men. In the end, I just told her that I got really scared and maybe hinted that I had some separation anxiety.

It wasn't a lie. It just wasn't the complete truth.

Later that night after I had successfully convinced myself that _yes _I was still in one piece and _no _there weren't any Mafiosi coming after me, Iemitsu came home again. For once, there were no flowers, no overexcited greetings. He was quiet, tired even.

"An accident," he said. "There was an accident at the construction site yesterday."

Momma and Tsuna may have been ignorant, but I _knew _what that meant, what 'an accident' really translated to. I also knew what that was _going_ to mean, as well. In a few hours' time, somewhere in a house a couple towns over, the happy little girl who had called me 'Nee-chan' was going to be dead.

For a split second in my head, it wasn't Kozato Mami's face peering up at me in my mind. It was Tsuna's.

This time, I actually did throw up. It wasn't a very pleasant experience.

After being declared officially sick (and possibly traumatized), Momma sent Tsuna and I to bed. Tsuna had been mostly silent since I had calmed myself down, but he finally cornered me just outside our bedroom door.

"…Tsu-kun?" I asked, my voice still hoarse from throwing up. I couldn't look at him. I kept seeing Mami and then Mami would turn _dead _and she suddenly wouldn't be Mami anymore. She would turn into Tsuna, blank eyed and blood-spattered and- and I was going to get sick again if I kept thinking about this.

Without saying anything, I flew forward and hugged my little brother _hard_. He didn't say anything either. He just reached up and hugged me back with equal ferocity, albeit more confused.

It was Iemitsu who tucked us in that night, not Momma. I laid there silently as he tucked Tsuna into his bed, my mind a hundred miles away in a little house where a little boy was about to live a nightmare. All because I got too scared to say anything.

I was so _stupid._

I wanted to cry. I wanted to get up and just bawl or maybe throw up again but I was frozen in place, orange eyes wide and trained on the ceiling.

When it was my turn to be tucked in, Iemitsu paused and rested his giant palm on my forehead. For once, I didn't care that he was touching me, didn't care that he was finally doing his job as a father six years too late. I didn't really care about anything at the moment, to be honest.

One hour away, Kozato Enma was probably being tucked in just like this for the last time.

"How're you feeling, Hime-chan?"

And for the billionth time that day, I let myself revert into the scared little six-year-old girl named Sawada Tsunami. The little girl with the glowing orange eyes that she was overly sensitive about. The little girl with the absent father who she despised, but also the girl missed having a father _at all _so much it hurt sometimes.

"I'm fine."

The little girl who _lied_ and _lied _and _lied_.

"Get better soon, Hime-chan." Iemitsu reached down and kissed my forehead before ruffling my long hair fondly and standing up to leave.

"Dad?" I called. He turned. "Could you leave the closet light on? Um, just for tonight?"

"Sure thing, princess."

As I passed out with the closet light on for the first time since I had been five the _first_ time around, I couldn't help but wonder if a warning really would have helped the Kozato family or if that was just wishful thinking.

That night, my dreams were full of little girls in white dresses and scrawny blank-eyed boys with blood spattered faces.

I had issues sleeping for a long, long time.

* * *

**A/N: So my quasi-beta told me today that this story needed more grimdark emotional-type stuff. I wouldn't say that this is ****_grimdark_**** persay, but hey, look. Feels. And some timeline screwage, but the KHR timeline **

**OKAY GUYS, POLL TIME. You people, I swear. Specifically you Hibari fangirls. Its like you all got together and decided to all vote at the very last second x_x So, placement:**

**First: Hibari Kyoya (27 votes)**

**Second: Yamamoto Takeshi, Rokudo Mukuro, and Kozato Enma (26 votes)**

**Third: Gokudera Hayato and Irie Shoichi (11 votes)**

**They'll be the ones available on the next poll, which should be up...now. Personally I'm rooting for Mukuro or Enma, but y'know.**

**GIANT THANKS TO:**

******Flower power.u know u like it, OwOTunaFishAndPineapplezzOwO , assi, mebo1, April Marciano, Chuu112, Jasmine-angela, Maso-chan, Seithr-Kairy, SinisteRRRsAngel, YuujouKami, Inoue Orihime15, summer. ice7, TenraiTsukiyomi, devil190, pizzas are immortal, Bluosity, Sasuna123, moonlight phonex101, Dreamless-Sleep777, Mikkola, RosaLuna416, Tani Yoru, alexag98, vnienhuis, CeramicPizza, Eovin, HG59, KeiGinya, .exile, Pandawasmyballpen, kamikorosuXP, monamonalisa17, NotreDaaaaame, UltraCreepyKiwi, Saskue's-Killer112, Viviene, Bishi-Bishi, nandive, shanagi95, Hayate The Soul Reaper, InTheDarkestHowers, Juliedoo, KuroHi91, Vikky Plushie, Sgaapje, sync94, virusxD, Sharkdude5, Deer-Shifter, Rena Talmay, Otaku-neku, RandomCitizen, KafeiDetour, TsubakiHana, soul-madness, GoodbyeHello, Leahnor Lex J. Maxwell, Nucima, bluedot, terfa, Eggbert 3000, Ev3rL05t, Loraliell, Magicnightstar reader, Milley02, johahptw, alaxsandra, kenegi, Luna-Zeta, virkelighetsflukt, Nazo-san, Neko9406, xXxIRISxXx, Ahoshi-chan, UnluckyStar112, WhitestormX, soul-madness, HKTM, Jerrac, Lil' Miss G, bluedot, CsRB, RecordingDreams, Suzululu08, lumenaquas, WingsOfFate, babyuknowme13, Kine X, Mel, The White Camellia, crazyblondefanfictionlover10 1, Persefone88, Lamashu, akuma-chan25300, RoaringZekClaws, LadiiWhisper, Bubbles227, Arithra, , Ixiene, bookimp, Caramel27, Scarlet-dragon1o1, saber007, givemehugs54, BlackNinjaNight, xXSakura-Hime-SamaXx, schnurzel87, Reiko Tsuchikake, MeLikesROFL, Mama-Child09, CrissCrossAnime, ChibiChaos Mage of Chaos, Pixie-stick13, DOTB18, Shinigami-Chan17, Aerisse. Hasste, xXSadistic BitchXx, Yuki Yui Yuu, xCrimsonxKitsunex, MichiyoYuki, Paigecat, yukira1997, nightange1, kanae1865, nickittaxx, Keeper of Storms, CalicoCat21, Ida-J, Shi-shiNata, whennothingmatters, MiakaKyle, AlpacasRule, LuxrayKitty, Papilio Ragno, Ri-chan, A Happy Reader, Alice, Inne, Karin, and Ayumi1924.**

******SPECIAL THANKS TO:**

******A blogger by the name of Arithra who added SOAUO to her Bookshelf on blogspot.**

******SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME BONUS PRIZE GOES TO:**

******Shanagi95, who submitted the 100th review. Asdfjkl;; guys, thats a big number. SO, Shanagi, if there is a scene or an an omake or a vision of the future or _whatever _that you want me to write you as a thank you present, just say so!**

******I LOVE YOU ALL.**


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